


Taking Up The Mantle

by meyari



Category: DCU - Comicverse, Smallville
Genre: Age Swap, Alternate Universe, Child Abuse, Infant Death, Insanity, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-29
Updated: 2013-04-29
Packaged: 2017-12-09 22:32:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 55,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/778728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lionel Luthor was convicted of murdering his parents, Lex Luthor was convinced that his life was effectively over. Thirteen years old, his parents either dead or in prison, Lex expected that he would end up in foster care. Instead, Timothy Drake-Wayne stepped forward and adopted Lex into the Wayne family as his son. Before long, Lex was learning incredible things and training to become the latest Robin after Timothy's brother Damian. His life had seemed to be over but it was just beginning.</p>
<p>In Smallville, Kansas, another young man with apparently everything to look forward to discovered a truth that left him convinced that his life truly was over. If Clark couldn't find a way to keep his father's AI from rewriting his personality and taking over his body then life might be over for everyone on Earth.</p>
<p>When the two of them encountered each other, it changed both of their destinies in ways they could never have anticipated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Up The Mantle

**Author's Note:**

> This is another story that I had intended to write more of. I got the boys to a good point but I had wanted to write how Lex and Clark become Batman and Superman. I don't see that happening so here's the story as it stands. I'm declaring it done and letting it go. Hope everyone enjoys it!

If there was anything that Bruce had taught Tim, it was that a life's path could be changed. Tim's life had gone from average to extraordinary with his adoption. Tim had every intention of changing Alexander Luthor's life in the same way.

The death of Lionel Luthor's youngest son Julian at his wife Lillian's hands had been a huge scandal, especially since Lex tried to take the blame for it in a blatant attempt to protect his deranged mother from her husband. Lionel's abusive relationship with both mother and child was quickly discovered after the autopsy revealed the infant's murder. His philandering and illegitimate son Lucas Dunleavy was also quickly revealed.

More importantly to Lex, Lionel's ties to the underworld and his murder of his parents quickly lead to his arrest and life conviction for murder. Lillian was incompetent to raise Lex and there were no other relatives available to care for him. She had declined rapidly after her commitment, dying in the asylum that she'd been committed to. Lucas had his mother, but Lex was alone in the world at the age of thirteen.

Tim watched the back of Lex's bald head in court while his lawyers argued flawlessly that it would be better for Lex to be raised by someone who had known him than by random foster parents. The publicity associated with his father's trial and his brother's death would be too overwhelming for a regular family. Timothy Drake, heir to the vast Wayne fortune, was a perfect choice to raise Lex to take over his father's business.

The courts agreed despite token protests from a court psychologist who attempted to portray both Tim and Bruce as irresponsible wastrels who couldn't take care of themselves, much less an emotionally needy child. Tim had a hard time suppressing a smile at that. If only they knew.

"Lex?" Tim said, cautiously resting a hand on his shoulder once the court had been cleared.

"What?" Lex asked. His voice was dead but the eyes that turned of Tim were bright with emotion, anger, fear, confusion, and curiosity.

"I won't ever attempt to replace your father," Tim said, kneeling down so that their eyes are at the same level. "I know that I can't. I was adopted after my parents died. I hope however that I can be something of an uncle to you."

"You'll be better than my real father. That's practically guaranteed," Lex said. He straightened his shoulders and squared his jaw. "Let's go."

"Very good," Tim said, standing back up. "Come with me. We'll head out back rather than risk the hordes out front."

Lex gave him a strange look, as if he was seeing straight through the 'Timothy Drake, gentleman of leisure' mask that Tim normally wore. Given his reputed intelligence he probably was. They made it back to the manor fairly easily, despite the media hounding them. Lex's things had already been delivered there, put into his room by Alfred, who had insisted on coming out of retirement to welcome the latest boy to live in Wayne Manor.

"This will be your suite," Tim said, pulling off the stiff tie as Lex looked around the room. "Until you learn the layout of the mansion, do be careful. It's easy to get lost. I got lost a lot when Bruce adopted me. I go out most evenings but if you need anything Alfred's on call, as are Mercy and Hope, his replacements. Did you need anything before I go?"

"A map?" Lex quipped, his lip curling in a little smirk that was uncomfortably like his father's at the trial.

"On the desk," Tim said with a grin at Lex's start of surprise. "I wasn't kidding. I did used to get lost. Try and stay away from the cliff when you go outside. We're having it stabilized but it could slide out from under you."

Lex took up the map, staring at it and then at Tim with questions in his eyes. He didn't voice them. Tim didn't push him. There would be time for questions and answers. Unlike Bruce's faith in his ability to hide his secret identity, Tim had no doubt that Lex would figure it out fairly quickly. 

Dick had been a sweet, bright child. Jason had been introduced to it immediately. Tim had known before he'd arrived in the mansion. Steph had been brought in just as Jason had. And Damien had all but been born with the knowledge, given his mother. Of them all, Lex's circumstances most closely resembled Dick's but they were totally different boys. Tim gave it a week before Lex found the cave and everything that it contained.

In fact, it took less than three days.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Dick asked as they discussed the cases for the night and how to split them up. 

With Bruce out of town for his latest surgery and Jason off doing his own thing, it was just Dick and Tim, though they could call Steph if needed. Batwoman wouldn't deny them assistance. Damien wouldn't answer no matter how desperately they needed him. As always it was a struggle to cover everything that needed to be covered in Gotham.

"Lex?" Tim asked. He smiled at Dick's worried nod. "It's fine. He's smart, talented and driven. He'll be able to cope when he finds out."

"I hope you're right," Dick murmured as he slid his mask on.

"I am," Tim said confidently. He grinned before putting on the cowl. "He's… going to be something someday, Dick. You should come meet him."

A gasp echoed from the stairs. Tim turned, knowing exactly who was standing there. Lex stared at the famous Nightwing and Batman, his eyes as wide as saucers. Dick groaned, letting his face fall into his palm. Tim laughed and patted his shoulder before going over to Lex's side. Lex eased back into the stairwell as if afraid he was about to be struck.

"I thought it would take four more days for you to figure out the way down here," Tim said with a wry smile that he rarely let show when outside of the cave. "Did you want a tour before we head out?"

"You're Batman," Lex whispered.

"Yes," Tim confirmed.

"That's Nightwing," Lex said a little more strongly this time. "You're heroes."

"Yes," Tim said with a fond nod for the boy.

A long pause that was obviously filled with lighting though preceded Lex's words, "Why me?"

Tim knelt down again so that Lex was looking down into his eyes, letting him see his face clearly in the dim light of the Batcave. Bats squeaked overhead, doing as they had for millennia before the human Bats inhabited the cave. Dick watched quietly, leaving Tim to take care of his new ward.

"I believe that a life's path can change, Lex," Tim said gently. "Your father's path is not yours. You can choose who you become, what you do. You can make a difference in the world. My life changed utterly when I became Robin. Bruce changed all of the Robins when he took us in. You'll meet them all eventually. I think you'll find Jason and Damien quite… interesting. Jason was a thief on the streets when Bruce found him. Damien was born to be an assassin. They're both heroes now."

Lex took in a shaky breath, staring out at the memorabilia from nearly three generations of Bats and Robins. "I could… do that?" 

"If you want to," Tim said. "You don't have to. Your life is yours, Lex. I'll help you become whatever you want to be."

"I want to be a hero," Lex immediately declared with adult determination filling his child's frame. "I want to be someone that the world looks up to. I want to make the world a better place for everyone."

His brother's death and his father's abuse were like ghosts over Lex's young face. Tim nodded and put a hand on his shoulder. Lex held his breath, staring up at Tim just as Tim had once stared up at Bruce.

"I'm sure you'll be great, Lex," Tim said. "Come on. Let me give you the tour and then you can watch us work from the monitors. It should be… educational."

+++++

"Sure, I'll be looking forward to seeing you," Tim was saying when Lex came downstairs from his room the Day After. 

Lex couldn't think of it any other way. How else could he think of the day that he found out that none other than Batman had adopted him? He had a million questions that he wasn't sure were acceptable to ask. Everyone knew that there had been multiple Robins (Lex inwardly flailed that he appeared to be on his way to becoming the next one) but there was a lot of debate on how many Batmans there had been, if there had been more than one. Lex's 3:00 a.m. calculations told him that there absolutely had to be more than one, possibly as many as three, just based on the ages of everyone associated with Bruce and Tim Wayne. He had no idea who they might have been, yet, but he intended to find out.

"No, it's okay," Tim laughed. "Mm-hmm. Oh yes, he found that last night. No, no, it's fine. Took it quite well, actually. No, Steph, _seriously_ it's fine but you can come over anytime, you know. You don't need an excuse. You're always welcome in this house."

Lex stared at his adopted father from the doorway. He looked years younger than his actual age of twenty-eight. Lex had thought that he was twenty-two or three when they'd first spoken at the courthouse. Tim spotted him and raised a hand for Lex to wait a moment. The smile at whatever Steph said on the phone brought out wrinkles around his eyes for a moment, making him look his age until his smile smoothed out into something gentler, far more loving.

"Bye Steph," Tim said, chuckling as he hung up. "Sorry, that's Steph. You'll meet her soon. Actually, I think you'll probably meet everyone today. Bruce is coming home after his surgery so everyone will be here to see that he doesn't overdo it. Do you want some breakfast? I think Alfred insisted on cooking."

Lex nodded while biting his tongue on the questions that wanted to spill out of his mouth. Tim cocked his head at Lex, a smirk dancing on his lips. The manor still seemed huge, though Lex had spent most of the last three days trying to memorize its layout. He didn't need Tim's guiding hand on the small of his back. The warmth and care it implied felt good though.

"You can ask, you know," Tim said. "Took me years to get to the point where I would ask certain questions. The others aren't likely to answer you but I think you have the right to know most things. You do have to deal with us, after all."

"How many Batmans have there been?" Lex asked in a rush of words that sounded nearly like one word. He could have kicked himself for sounding so immature.

"Depends on how you count it," Tim laughed at Lex's blush. "We count three but there were a few pretenders and some outsiders brought in for very brief periods that confuse things."

"You'll… really answer my questions?" Lex breathed.

He froze on the last step to the main floor, staring into Tim's eyes. Tim had gone down all the steps so his eyes were now at Lex's level. They were warm and blue, with something very like affection in them. Lex could see Tim's intelligence, the intelligence that he hid from the rest of the world. He tried not to let himself believe that letting Lex see Tim's true face was a sign of respect. It wasn't something that Lex had earned yet. Besides, why would Batman respect a 13-year-old boy?

"Of course," Tim said. "There are things that are hard to talk about. Bruce won't answer your questions at all, just to warn you. He takes laconic to all new levels. Dick will make jokes and you have to sift your data out of the puns. Jason, well, Jason might answer you but there's a very good likelihood that he'll say it in a way that makes you so angry you don't realize he's told the truth. Or he might lie. Steph will probably be helpful. She'll hug you a lot. And watch out for Damien. He's likely to decide that you're usurping your place here. If so, he'll try to kill you."

"And who are these people exactly?" Lex asked, his heart beating a lot harder at the idea of having to associate with all of these strangers.

"They're your family," Tim said with a wry little shrug. "Dick was Bruce's first ward. Bruce was the first Batman and Dick was the first Robin. Dick got… fired, and Bruce took in Jason. Jason became Robin until he was murdered. I became Robin shortly after that. Shortly after Jason was resurrected, I had to step down as Robin. Steph took over for me but she had to fake her death so I came back as Robin. Shortly after _that_ Damien showed up. A lot of stuff happened around then. I got thrown out as Robin so Damien took over. He was Robin for a while, and then Bruce disappeared so Dick became Batman until he came back. Eventually Damien stepped down and Bruce got shot on patrol, so I became Batman."

He stopped and cocked his head at Lex, the amusement mixed with worry now. "I've overwhelmed you again, haven't I?"

"They're all former Batmans and Robins, right?" Lex said, swallowing hard. The whole 'resurrected' thing made his head swim but it was something that could wait until later. "And they're coming here to see if I'm good enough."

"No, they're coming here to keep Bruce from trying to get up and go patrolling," Tim said, patting Lex's arm. "Meeting you is a side benefit. Bruce is the most stubborn person that you'll ever meet. At 52, he really should be fully retired but Bruce refuses to let it go despite being in a wheelchair for a while now. You'll see."

They headed into the kitchen, finding Alfred puttering around the edges while Hope cooked and Mercy tried to get him to sit down and rest. The three of them were odd enough that Lex still wasn't sure what to make of them. Alfred seemed to be the quintessential British butler but Mercy, who was the scariest person Lex had ever met, full stop, was nothing but respectful of him. Hope looked at him with awe, which didn't really make sense to Lex. He was just an old man.

"Ah, Master Tim, Master Alexander," Alfred said with a gentle smile that made Lex smile automatically in response. "Breakfast should be ready any moment, though Hope refuses to allow me to check that's it's been prepared properly."

"I'm sure she's following your instructions perfectly, Alfred," Tim said. "Just to forewarn all of you, Steph should be here soon and I think Bruce will be back in a couple of hours."

"Of course, Master Tim," Alfred said with such a calm nod that Lex thought he might greet the end of the world with a slightly raised eyebrow and a feather duster raised high. "Our plans are already in place."

"Perfect," Tim replied.

Breakfast was simple toast, jam and tea. Lex kind of liked it. His father's version of breakfast had been eggs and bacon, with pancakes and syrup. It had always seemed like too much. Mercy put an apple on Lex's plate as he ate. Her fierce look made it perfectly clear that he better eat it if he knew what was good for him, so he did.

By the time they were done with breakfast, Tim had been called away to arrange for Bruce's transportation home from the hospital. Lex went to the library and read. He was sure that when things started happening someone would come find him. In the meantime he intended to enjoy the freedom of getting to read anything he wanted, without any worries about 'lessons' from his father or being graded by teachers. When he stopped for a break a few hours later he realized that he could hear voices echoing through the manor. Lex followed them to the den.

"I'm fine," an older man's voice growled from inside.

"Please, you just got home," scoffed a woman's voice that Lex didn't recognize. "Relax for once in your life, will you?"

"I don't need to be babied," the man's voice snapped.

Lex carefully opened the door to the den, peeking in. A woman with blond hair was fussing over an older man who had to be Bruce Wayne. Tim was watching from what Lex recognized as a safe distance with a fond smile on his face. A larger man about his age was leaning against the fireplace. He had a stripe of white hair and an almost cruel smirk.

"Father, do be sensible," a young man of about eighteen said. "We don't yet know if the surgery will be successful in giving you full usage of your legs. You don't need to go down to the cave yet. Have some lunch and go after that."

Bruce's eyes flicked around the room so fiercely that Lex shivered and hid behind the door. There was something affectionate in those eyes but they were so intense that Lex found himself incredibly reluctant to call attention to himself. Hiding didn't do any good. As soon as he moved Bruce's eyes latched onto him. Lex swallowed hard, willing his knees to stop shaking. A Luthor never showed fear. Even if he wasn't truly a Luthor anymore Lex was pretty sure that Wayne's weren't supposed to show fear either.

"So this is Lex," Bruce said, straightening up a little in his wheelchair. "I was wondering where you were."

"Um, I was reading," Lex said as he squared his shoulders and entered the room as confidently as he could with them all staring at him. "In the library. You have a wonderful collection."

"I've had help from a large number of boys expanding it," Bruce said. His lips curled into something that might be called a smile if only it had reached his eyes. They were still cold as they assessed Lex.

"This is obviously Bruce Wayne," Tim said from his spot closer to the fireplace. "That's Damien next to him, and Steph trying to keep him in his chair. This is Jason. Dick hasn't shown up yet but he should be here soon."

"Probably too busy with his latest squeeze," Jason drawled in a sardonic tone of voice that would have done Lionel proud.

"Pleased to meet you all," Lex said, nodding to them while he wished that he'd kept reading instead of coming in here.

Tim held out an arm in an invitation for Lex to join him. Lex tried very hard not to scurry but his walk over to Tim's side probably qualified as a scramble. Bruce immediately started wheeling his chair across the room, only to be blocked by Steph. Lex listened to the banter, staying silent as they talked about the Joker, Penguin, Hush and a dozen other villains and the injuries they'd received from various people. It only took about five minutes for Bruce to overwhelm everyone else's objections so that he could go to an elevator that Lex hadn't realized was hidden on the other side of the room.

"So there are multiple ways down?" Lex murmured to himself as Tim held the door as Steph complained at Bruce's obstinacy.

"Several," Damien commented. His eyes were nearly as cold as Bruce's when he met Lex's gaze. "I think they think it's a game to make the new ones figure out where they all are."

"Of course it is," Jason said with a nasty smile at Damien. "Baldy hear beat your record. He found the stairs in three days."

"Baldy?" Lex snarled.

"I don't keep track, unlike certain other idiots," Damien snarled.

Jason laughed at them. He went down with the others. Lex and Damien had to wait for the elevator to come back up as it was full. Lex looked at Damien questioningly. He didn't want to wait for the others, especially given that Bruce's wheelchair would take some time to extract from the elevator.

"So is there a way down that will let us get there before them?" Lex asked.

"Several," Damien said with a smile that matched the wicked grin that bloomed on Lex's face.

The fire pole was heart stopping to slide down but after watching Damien take it without pausing Lex wasn't about admit to being frightened of heights. He slid down and landed on his ass once he hit the padding at the bottom. Damien laughed but he did give Lex a hand up. His grip was like steel.

"I wondered when you guys were going to get down here," Nightwing's cheerful voice came from the other room. "The others managed to hold Bruce off for that long, huh?"

"They tried," Damien sighed. He looked annoyed to see Nightwing. "They failed."

"No surprise there. It's Bruce," Nightwing laughed. He wasn't wearing his suit or mask this time. His face looked much kinder without it. Where the others (except for Jason who'd been mostly in leather) had been wearing nice slacks and shirts, Nightwing was in jeans and a polo. He grinned at Lex. "Dick Grayson. I don't think Tim ever said my name last night."

"Um, yeah," Lex said because somehow saying 'nice to meet you' when you were learning a person's secret identity didn't seem like the right reply. Maybe 'thank you for trusting me' or 'I swear I'll never betray you'? He didn't have to find more of a reply because the elevator binged and released the others, still squabbling with Bruce.

"Just like old times," Dick said quietly.

Apparently it was just like old times because as soon as Bruce was out of the elevator everyone started in on the gossip about times past. Lex hung back, trying to cross-reference ages and dates with events he'd read about or heard about. Villains and allied heroes mixed in his head with vaguely remembered rants from his father about super heroes ruining the world, or at least his plans for the future.

"Confusing," Lex muttered.

He went and got some paper, sketching out a timeline. While the others talked, ate the food that Alfred and Hope delivered a bit later, and generally got on each other's nerves, Lex worked on his timeline. It was insanely complicated by the time Damien looked over his shoulder. He'd already gone through four drafts.

"I thought you were taking notes," Damien murmured with a smug snort of amusement.

"No, just trying to figure out what the heck they're talking about," Lex sighed.

"You missed Jason's death," Damien said, taking a red pen from a pocket and marking that on the timeline. "He was resurrected here. And my arrival was here, not there."

"Huh, how did that happen?" Lex asked, nodding as he made notes by Damien's red marks.

"If you ever find out I think they would all be pleased to know." Damien shrugged. "I do not care, personally. He was dead. Then he was not. It was apparently part of a crisis of some sort that occurred when I was six years old."

"Hmm, I would have been one then," Lex murmured. "I'll see what I can find out later."

Jason wandered over, looking at Lex's timeline with a raised eyebrow. He looked at Damien who stared back at him so flatly that Lex wondered how often the two of them came to blows. Despite Tim's warnings about Damien, so far he'd been fairly nice to Lex, all things considered. Lex had expected much worse from someone that Tim had openly described as an assassin.

"You geeking out?" Jason asked. He flicked a finger at Lex's notes.

Lex looked down at them, then up at Jason. All the bullying he'd gotten in school flashed through his mind, as did his father's snide words whenever Lex was too obviously a genius. Being too smart or too geeky had gotten him beaten up before. He didn't want to go through that again.

'This isn't school,' Lex reminded himself. 'He isn't Lionel. This is supposed to be home.'

"Yes," Lex replied while firmly meeting Jason's eyes. He left it at that, not willing to leave any more openings than the one he'd already given.

Jason burst out laughing, grinning at Lex with something like respect in his eyes. Damien made a little noise could have been amusement or annoyance. Lex didn't turn to look at him. After a moment of laughter that made the bats overhead squeak, Jason smirked in Tim's direction.

"I should have known you'd adopt a geek, Baby Bird," Jason said.

"A genius, actually," Tim said with so much pride that Lex started. "He'll be the smartest Robin yet, once he's been trained."

"So he is taking up the mantle," Bruce murmured. His voice carried through the cave as if it was perfectly pitched to make his voice, and his alone, sing to the distant recesses of the cave's darkness.

"Eventually," Tim said with a nod to Bruce. "He'll need a lot of training but I think he'll do quite well."

"I see," Bruce said.

This time the smile did reach his eyes. Lex's stomach tried to squirm its way up into his throat, setting off tears that Lex refused to show. Maybe they were all weird and scary, but it looked like Lex had finally found a family that accepted him. He swallowed down the lump in his throat and smiled back.

+++++

"Harder."

Lex growled under his breath, what little breath he had, and hit the pads on Mercy's hands harder. Bruce watched from sidelines. His gaze felt like lasers cutting him into little pieces. Before he'd started training to be Robin he'd thought that his father was tough. Lionel Luthor had nothing on Bruce Wayne. The old man was the definition of 'driven', to the point that Lex privately wondered if Bruce ever stopped working to improve himself.

"Harder."

He was panting. Mercy moved just fast enough that Lex had to focus completely to be able to hit the pads. She was clearly going easy on him as she wasn't breathing hard. Lex was intensely grateful for it. There was no way that he'd have managed to connect if Mercy hadn't made allowances for him. That he needed those allowances drove him nuts. If he ever wanted to graduate from trainee to being Robin he needed to be faster, stronger, better.

"Not good enough."

The relentless voice echoed out of the darkness as if Bruce was actually made of shadows. He'd moved sometime during the practice. Lex had been so focused on hitting Mercy's mitts that he hadn't noticed Bruce's movements. It was another failing that made him furious at himself. Losing track of what was happening around him would be fatal in the field.

Sweat dripped into his eyes. Lex ignored it and blinked it away so that he could focus on Mercy. He heard Bruce's wheelchair off to his right. Steps echoed off to the left. They were quick and firm so it couldn't be Alfred. He walked slowly, each step take a little more time than it probably should. The impact of the heels was a deeper sound so it had to be a male. Hope tended to wear high heeled shoes. It had to be Tim or Damien. Dick and Jason wore tennis shoes most of the time.

"Faster."

It felt like his heart was going to pound its way straight through his chest. His throat was burning. The sweat poured down his ribs. Mercy's face was blurry. Lex knew it was his exhaustion getting the better of him but he wasn't going to stop, not until he was stronger. Not just because he wanted to be Robin but also because he wouldn't be what Lionel had wanted him to be.

"Enough."

"No!" Lex gasped as Mercy dropped the gloves. "I c-can keep going."

"That's enough," Bruce repeated. "You do yourself no favors if you push yourself to the point you collapse. You have to learn when your body has reached the edge. Then you push just past it and stop. Doing that repeatedly is what builds strength. Pushing too hard just hurts you."

Lex nodded, panting as he tried to catch his breath. It was another thing added to his mental list of lessons to learn. By the time Lex had caught his breath enough to look up Bruce was already in the elevator and going upstairs. Mercy cleaned up the training area silently while keeping an eye on him.

"Water?" Tim asked. He offered Lex a water bottle and towel.

"Thanks," Lex said, taking both. He wiped his face off before drinking the water in three big gulps. "So much to learn."

"There is," Tim said. "You're doing quite well. Did you study any martial arts before this?"

"A little," Lex said hesitantly. His legs felt like jelly when he stood up. "Father always approved of fencing so I was studying that. And Excelsior insisted that we take some PE every year."

Tim nodded thoughtfully. They headed back upstairs in the elevator. So far, Tim hadn't insisted that Lex return to school. He kind of hoped that he wouldn't have to go back to Excelsior. It had always been a tough place where he'd gotten a lot of teasing. Of course wherever he ended up going to school he'd likely be teased. A 13-year-old bald kid got a lot of teasing as a matter of course.

They had lunch with Bruce, Jason and Damien, and then Lex went and hid in the library. He wasn't sure if the others realized that it was hiding given how much Lex was reading, but he knew that it was. No matter how welcoming they were, his new family was _new_ to him. Lex didn't know what to expect from them yet. Their shared history was so deep and intense that he found himself retreating on a regular basis to take refuge in books.

That there were so many absolutely fascinating books made it all the easier.

History and science rubbed elbows with criminology and law books. Popular novels were scattered next to leather-bound classics that showed that they'd been read many times and loved. Genealogy books were shelved next to physics. Mathematics texts leaned up against poetry books marked by hand-pressed leaves from the garden.

"You're a bit of a bookworm," Dick said a few hours later.

"Hmm?" Lex said, pulled out of a completely amazing history of the Wayne family that he'd found tucked behind some cooking books on the far side of the library. "Oh, well, yes, I guess I am. I've never had the run of a library with so many really interesting books before."

"How many have you read?" Dick asked. He grinned at Lex before sitting down opposite him at the table.

"Let's see," Lex said while counting it up. "I think… I've read about a thousand of them so far. I estimate that it'll take another three to six months to read them all, depending on how much training I do and if I go back to school soon."

Dick spluttered and stared at Lex with his eyes opened wide. Lex blinked at him. When Dick cocked his head in an obvious 'are you serious?' question Lex's cheeks flamed so hard that he could feel his scalp blushing. He shrugged and nodded.

"And I thought Tim was a bookworm," Dick laughed. "Sounds like you'll do really well when you do go back to school. I'll leave you to your reading then."

Lex hesitated for a second before grabbing Dick's wrist. There hadn't been much time for questions lately and Lex still had a million questions about how it had all begun. Dick stopped, smiling down at Lex with far too fond an expression.

"C-could you tell me something?" Lex asked hopefully.

"Sure," Dick said. "What did you want to know?"

"How did you get involved with all of this?" Lex asked. "I mean, I know that your parents died in a circus accident that wasn't an accident and Bruce took you in, but… the training and becoming Robin. Crime fighting. All of that. Why… how? Why do you still do it?"

Dick smiled much more sadly this time. He freed his wrist and sat down next to Lex instead of opposite him. Lex waited quietly for Dick to gather his thoughts. He'd love to get the chance to ask all of them but he suspected that Jason and Damien wouldn't appreciate the questions at all. And Bruce didn't act like he'd tell Lex anything, no matter how politely he asked.

"When I started, it was a thrill," Dick said after a long moment of silence. "I'd been training to be a circus performer and being Robin was taking that to the next level. That I got to help people was just a side benefit. I was really young, only eleven. It took a while before I got serious about it…"

He smiled into the distance, apparently seeing himself and Bruce back then as he told Lex about the earliest days of Batman and Robin. Lex listened with everything he had. They may have been simpler times but he knew that there were lessons to learn. Whatever happened, Lex was determined to be ready when it came his time to put on the suit.

By the time Lex realized that Dick was very carefully leaving out what had to be highly colorful stories of his sexual exploits with a bunch of male and female heroes, it was dinnertime. Jason's comments about Dick's latest squeeze made more sense. Lex watched the way that Dick moved as they went downstairs. He still moved like a performer, every gesture drawing attention while his core remained so centered that Lex suspected that he'd be almost impossible to attack.

"What?" Dick asked when he caught Lex staring at his chest. "Is there something on my shirt?"

"Oh no!" Lex squeaked, blushing brightly again. "Just watching the way you move."

"You catch on quick," Dick laughed. "Took me ages to learn to do that. You'll be surprised what you can learn about someone by watching how they move."

He pretended to ruffle Lex's non-existent hair, laughing at the way Lex batted his hand away. Dick joked and laughed his way through dinner. Steph joked with him. She was sitting right next to Tim. Lex noticed them touching way more than would be normal for mere teammates and filed that way in his mental register of traits. He wondered if they were still lovers or if it was something that was past. Damien's additions to dinner conversation tended to be utterly sarcastic and cutting, though strangely he didn't do that whenever Lex offered something up about what he'd been doing this afternoon.

"You found the Wayne history?" Bruce asked. His words shut everyone up especially since he sat up very straight and stared at Lex with blazing eyes. "Where was it?"

"Um, behind some cookbooks up on the top shelf on the far side of the library from the other genealogy books," Lex said. "It kind of looked like it had been pushed to the back by accident."

"The top shelf?" Bruce asked while frowning as if that made no sense.

"It was really dusty," Lex said. "I think it had been there for years, honestly."

"Huh."

Dinner was a lot quieter after that. Lex was dying to ask if it was wrong of him to have read it but no one said anything further about the book. Instead they talked about what was probably going to come up on patrol that night and who was going to work what parts of Gotham. Damien made it clear that he was only staying for another two nights before returning 'home', wherever that was. Jason offered to help Tim out on his patrol, only to be quite firmly rebuffed.

"Whatever," Jason snarled. 

He stood and stomped out of the room, which set off everyone else leaving as well. Lex went last, pondering what he'd learned so far. When he got back to the library to put away the books he'd taken down he found Bruce there, sitting in his wheelchair with the Wayne family history in his hands. He hadn't opened it. All he was doing was staring at it while gently running his fingers over the embossed letters on its cover.

"Should I have left it alone?" Lex asked very quietly.

"No." Bruce sighed. "It's one of the few books to have survived the fire. My mother used to read from it when I was tiny. I thought it had gotten lost."

Lex looked at Bruce's stoic face before nodding. "I'm glad that I found it then. Mementoes like that are important to keep."

Bruce's eyes smiled at Lex even though his lips barely twitched. He set the history back on Lex's stack of books and wheeled himself out of the library. As he passed he grinned at Lex so brightly that he looked like a completely different person, or maybe like the boy he'd been decades ago.

"I especially like the chapter about our pirate ancestors," Bruce murmured. "Enjoy."

Lex laughed a little breathlessly while watching Bruce leave. When he went to bed that night he took the Wayne history with him. He didn't get much sleep. The book was far too good to set aside, especially because he knew that this wasn't just a story. The adventures that the history described had happened to Bruce and Damien's ancestors, to real people that Lex was now tied to.

"So do you want to learn to fly?" Tim asked the next day around midmorning.

"Fly?" Lex squeaked. "You mean, like real flying or…"

"Trapeze work," Tim laughed. "It's the basis of what we do when we're out there on the rooftops."

"Yeah!"

Dick was there when they got to the gym. He was already up in the air above the nets, swinging back and forth on one of the trapezes. Tim explained the basics, carefully showing Lex what to do and how to grab the trapeze. They chalked their hands and then climbed up. Once up there he saw that Bruce had shown up with Alfred and Hope.

"Not sure I want an audience," Lex murmured to Tim.

"Don't worry about it," Tim chuckled. "Neither Dick nor I will let you be hurt."

"Not worried about getting hurt," Lex muttered even more quietly. "Worried about embarrassing myself."

The first few swings were terrifying in the extreme but Tim and Dick did a great job of helping Lex overcome his fear of heights. The net underneath them helped him relax too. By the time they'd been at it for half an hour Lex was grinning so hard that his face hurt and breathing like a bellows. Dick laughed as Lex transferred from Tim's trapeze to his.

"Having fun?" Dick asked.

"Oh yeah," Lex said with a laugh that would have made Dick proud. "This is incredible!"

Later he thought that of course it would be when he was happiest that it would all fall apart. They let Lex rest a minute and then did another simple transfer. Lex's left hand closed on the bar but his right hand missed somehow. He squawked as he swung by one hand, twisted and then lost his grip. Tim shouted something as Lex fell. Lex did his best to go into a ball and then slap outwards the way that Tim had explained but as he slapped his wrist smacked into one of the bars supporting the trapeze with an incredibly painful crack.

"Lex!" Bruce's voice cut across everyone else's.

"Ow," Lex groaned. "That didn't work."

Dick landed close to him in the net, bouncing them hard. Tim landed a second after that. They both scooped Lex up and got him off of the net, back to solid ground. Lex held his wrist, muttering curses under his breath that he'd made a stupid mistake like that.

"Let me see," Bruce demanded.

"It's okay," Lex said with an annoyed sigh. "I'll be fine."

He winced at Bruce's growl, letting him take his wrist. His whole hand was turning purple but Lex could move his fingers so he knew that it wasn't that bad. It looked awful but the damage wasn't too severe.

"We better X-ray this," Tim said. He looked so pale that Lex wondered if he was going to throw up.

"It's okay," Lex protested. "There's nothing broken. I know what broken bones feel like. I think I just sprained it when I twisted and then gave myself a nice bruise when I hit the bar. I'll be fine in a day or two."

They all stilled and stared at him as if he'd said something incredible. Bruce's eyes were doing the laser beam thing again, which made Lex swallow hard. He really hated it when Bruce did that. Dick knelt next to Lex's side, setting a hand on his shoulder.

"A day or two?" Dick asked.

"Yeah," Lex said with as casual a shrug as he could manage with all of them staring at him this way. "Ever since I lost my hair I heal really fast. I don't get sick either. A sprain is gone in a couple of day. A broken bone takes a week to a week and a half. A cut is two or three days. It's like… my metabolism is really fast or something. Mother thought that was why I lost my hair."

"Do you know what caused it?" Bruce asked.

"I lost my hair in the Smallville meteor shower," Lex said. "I was five. Mother and I went along when Father tried to buy out some land in Smallville. I wandered off because I was bored and then the meteors fell. One of them hit really close to me. When I woke up afterwards I was in the hospital and I had no hair. Mother never let us have anything to do with Smallville after that but… she was never right after that either. I've always thought that the meteors did something to us both but I don't have any proof of that."

They exchanged looks that Lex thought meant that they'd be doing some very serious research into the Smallville meteor shower. He cradled his wrist to his chest and waited to see what they would do. Father had always insisted that Lex keep his 'differences' secret. Lex wasn't living by his rules anymore but if the Wayne family couldn't deal with him then very likely no one else could.

"I wonder if that's why Damien's been relatively pleasant to you," Tim said. He offered a hand to Lex to give him a hand up.

"Huh?" Lex asked in surprise.

"He heals quickly too," Dick said. "Ask him about it sometime. I'd be interested to hear what he tells you."

"Later," Bruce said in that very dark voice that Lex had already tagged mentally as Batman talking, not Bruce Wayne. "First we need to check that wrist. There will be time for questions later."

Tim's hand was warm on Lex's back as they headed down to the cave's medical area. Lex leaned into the contact, grateful for the reassurance. He'd screwed up but it wasn't the end of the world. Something that had been wound too tight inside of him by his father's insistence that Luthor's don't make mistakes loosened a little bit. Maybe, just maybe, he'd manage to live up to his new name without too much shame.

"You did well, Lex," Tim murmured. "Really well. Keep it up and you're going to be Robin in record time."

Lex ducked his head to hide a grin. "Thanks. I'd rather take the time to make sure that I do it right. It's too important to rush, no matter how impatient I am."

Tim nodded. He wrapped an arm around Lex's shoulders just as if he really were a proud, worried father. Lex let himself enjoy the contact. Tim would never be his real father but he was doing a very good job of making Lex realize that he'd never had a father to be proud of in the first place.

+++++

"Greatest superhero alive!" Kyle said in such a challenging tone of voice that Lex had to fight not to smirk at him. "No other superhero comes close to her."

"You just like her bust," Sara huffed at him. "Sure, she's really cool and all but you're just staring at her body."

"I am not!" Kyle protested. "She's incredible! Super strength, super speed, flies, invulnerable; no other superhero comes close to Wonder Woman. And she's gorgeous, not that that matters. She's incredible."

Lex laughed as Sara rolled her eyes at Kyle and stomped off. Granted, Kyle was right about Wonder Woman but Sara was just as right that Kyle wasn't paying that much attention to her powers. He was far more focused on her figure. Kyle groaned, letting his chin drop down to his chest.

"Dude, there's got to be some way I can get through to her," Kyle complained. "She keeps blowing me off."

"You might try just talking to her," Lex suggested with a wry smile.

"But, but, what do I say?" Kyle asked more than a little desperately. "Nothing I've tried so far has worked."

"Ask her about herself and then _listen_ to the answers," Lex said with an eye roll of his own.

As nice as it was to have actual friends at school, sometimes Lex wished he'd taken the private tutor option that Tim had offered when he moved into the manor. It was hard balancing training with school and friends. Of course, not having had friends before Lex wasn't exactly sure how to go about the whole 'friends' thing properly. He certainly didn't have good role models in the family for that. They spent all their time fighting, unless they were rescuing each other.

Still, school was fun and he liked having friends. The schoolwork itself was boring. His school's version of 'advanced' classes left a lot to be desired, especially for someone like Lex who had been in a elite private school's advanced classes since preschool. Either way, he enjoyed himself most of the time.

"I thought that Sara would like that I like Wonder Woman," Kyle complained sadly as they headed out to go home.

"I'm sure she does," Lex said with just a little bit of sympathy for his first and best friend. "But everyone likes Wonder Woman. She really is the world's finest, along with Batman. It just doesn't mean anything. Seriously, just ask her about her day. Compliment on her on her dress or her hair or something."

"Where do you learn these things?" Kyle asked suspiciously.

"Uncle Tim and Uncle Dick," Lex said with a casual shrug. "You know they're good at getting the girls. Works for them. I don't see why it won't work for you, as long as you _listen_ to her when she answers. And give her a chance to take you seriously. You've been acting like an idiot. It'll take a while before she believes you."

Mercy was waiting for him so Lex patted Kyle's shoulder before getting into the car. Kyle waved goodbye and shuffled off to try and talk to Sara while they waited for their rides home. Lex chuckled, grateful that he got the chance to relax a little before they got home.

"Mr. Wayne wants to see you once you get home, sir," Mercy said. She emphasized 'see you' in just the right way to let Lex know that it was going to be in the cave with the one, true Batman, not Bruce Wayne.

"All right, thanks Mercy," Lex said.

He didn't fidget during the drive home. Well, he fidgeted but not to the point where it was painfully obvious that his nerves were getting to him. After a year of training every day for hours each day with Bruce Wayne, Lex would have thought that he'd have developed a bit more resistance to the man's intensity. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be true. Mercy was smiling a tiny little smile when she let him out of the car that said she thought his nervousness was cute.

"Um, I'm here," Lex called once he'd run up to his room, left his books and then slid down the pole to the cave. 

He never knew if he should call Bruce 'Bruce' or 'Batman' or what, so generally he avoided using a name at all. In the quiet of his head Lex admitted that the only proper name to use was probably Batman but that wasn't something that anyone said out loud. Besides, Lex didn't want to get mixed up in public sometime.

"How was school?" Bruce asked from the station in front of the monitors. He didn't look at Lex as he came in.

"Good," Lex said. He studied Bruce and decided that he wanted to know less about the lessons and more about the other events. "Kyle is trying to get Sara to date him. His latest attempt was going on about how awesome Wonder Woman is."

"She is rather awesome," Bruce said, his lips twitching into a wry smile that that made Lex grin. "Did it work?"

"Nope," Lex said and laughed. "Sara said he was just interested in her bust."

"And this is unusual for eight-grade males?" Bruce countered, laughter clear in his eyes even if it didn't reach his lips.

"Not at all," Lex snickered. All of his friends at school thought she was incredible. "I told him to ask her about her life or something and then actually listen to her replies."

"That might work," Bruce agreed. "But only if he actually does it."

He took his cane and levered himself to his feet, resting one hand on Lex's shoulder. Lex didn't take the gesture as one of affection. Bruce was still struggling to regain his mobility. The amount of weight he put on Lex's shoulder nearly made him stagger but after a year of non-stop training he could handle it.

They walked together through the display room with its many mementoes and costumes. Lex had spent ages in here when he first arrived, gazing at the items and learning their history. He no longer did. There were techniques to learn and lessons to absorb. History had its place but the here and now was far more urgent for him.

"What?" Lex gasped when they went into the training room. 

A new uniform rested on one of the benches. It was red and gold and green, with the bright boots and gloves but this one had a cowl instead of just a domino. Lex was the only person in the manor who would fit in it. Bruce's eyes smiled down out of a far too grim face when Lex looked up at him.

"It's time," Bruce said. "You're ready."

"Thank you, sir," Lex whispered around the lump that appeared in his throat.

Lex felt anything but ready several hours later as he knelt on one of Gotham's many warehouse roofs and stared down at a drug deal in process. Tim was with him, dressed in his Batman outfit. Bruce's voice rumbled through their radios, filling them in on what was happening around them. The police were busy with a bank robbery on the far side of town. Nightwing was occupied with a domestic kidnapping. Damien and Jason were both out of town, Damien working as Bloodwing in the Middle East and Jason in Bludhaven for some unfathomable and uncommunicated reason.

"Ready?" Tim asked Lex in an undertone that was so quiet as to be sub vocal.

Lex nodded rather than saying anything. He knew his voice would crack if he tried. He'd gotten a million suggestions from all of the others on how to do proper quips while fighting. It seemed to be a requirement for Robin to be a bit smart mouthed. Lex suspected that he'd be far more in Tim's model, silent unless saying something of substance.

"Let's go," Tim, no Batman, said as the guns were pulled below. The deal had gone bad and people would die if they didn't act.

Flying felt different this time. It had been joy and freedom, flying for the sheer joy of doing it. Now it was rather like being a bird of prey striking from above. Lex managed to take out his first criminal with a solid impact to his back, knocking him into a second who shouted and whirled, only to find that Lex had ducked under his arm and then come up with a fist to the drug dealer's chin.

"Batman!" someone shouted across the alleyway.

"Goddamn it!" the drug dealer closest to Lex snarled. "Not taking me in!"

Lex spun and high-kicked for all he was worth, sending the man back on his ass. Somewhat to his surprise the man stayed down, groaning before collapsing on his back. Another came at him. Lex had enough time to quail for a millisecond before he struck and sent the man to the ground with a blow to the solar plexus. Lex whirled, ready for more attackers but they were all down or gone.

"Good job," Batman said. "Secure them and then call the police."

"Right. On it Batman." Lex nodded and got to work. Batman disappeared into the night, pursuing the ones who'd gotten away. 

By the time he'd finished zip tying the drug dealer's wrists Batman was back, dragging two more drug dealers. They left them there in a heap with the sounds of sirens approaching quickly. The flight back to the rooftops was far more exciting this time. Lex's heart hadn't stopped pounding from the fight.

They went onwards, patrolling and stopping several relatively minor crimes. Around 3:00 a.m. the night finally calmed and they were able to go home. Despite his exhaustion, Lex was buzzing with excitement. He very deliberately didn't ask Tim if he'd been grateful for having a cup to hide his excitement when he went on patrol for the first time. There were some questions that he simply wouldn't ask his father figure.

"You did good, Lex," Tim said once they were back in the locker rooms in the cave. "Any injuries?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Lex said, breathing a sigh of relief as the cowl came off. His scalp felt itchy from the sweat that had accumulated. "That gets hot!"

Tim laughed his agreement. His hair was sweat-soaked once he removed his cowl. Lex was ferociously glad for the curtains on the showers. He felt like he was going to explode and yet he was so tired that he thought he might fall down if he stood still for too long. Quiet humming echoed from Tim's shower. It was strangely effective in helping Lex calm. By the time he was clean and dry, dressed in warm sweats, his whole body felt like it was made of lead.

"Come on, upstairs," Tim said, prodding Lex out of a moment's daze while pulling on his slippers. "Time for you to head to bed. You do have school tomorrow."

"Today," Lex corrected him. "This is why I have the late class shift, isn't it? So I can patrol and still go to school."

"Mmm-hmm," Tim murmured.

Tim tucked him into bed, pulling the covers up over Lex once he'd flopped on the pillows. Normally Lex would have changed into pajamas but this time he just didn't care. A hand ghosted over Lex's scalp, leaving behind sense memories of calluses and the faintest hint of nails scratching against a bruise that Lex didn't remember receiving. It would be gone by morning from the feel of it.

"Good job, Robin," Tim whispered from the door. "Sleep well."

Lex smiled into his pillow, finally allowing sleep to consume him. He didn't feel ready to be Robin but maybe this was actually something that he could do. Maybe he could be something other than what Lionel had wanted him to be. It was a good feeling that stuck with him into his dreams of flying on the end of his zip line across Gotham's rooftops.

+++++

Clark took a deep breath to brace himself before heading into school. It bugged him sometimes that nothing had changed when he moved up to junior high. He was still unpopular. No one wanted to be his friend besides Pete. His family would always be poor. They were farmers. What else would they be? He was clumsy, too strong and had to be careful all the time. Despite all of that, every day he hoped that something would change, even though he knew that it wouldn't.

"Clark!" Pete shouted from down the hall by their lockers. He looked excited, bouncing up and down so that he could wave over the shoulders of the other kids.

"Coming!" Clark called back.

He dodged Whitney and his friends while managing not to run into anyone or break anything. His growth spurt had made him taller than the others but he was a lot clumsier because of it. Mom and Dad kept nagging him about thinking before he moved. Clark thought that he'd broken more things in the last couple of months than he had since he was really little.

"What's up?" Clark asked as he unlocked his locker carefully. He couldn't afford another new lock this week, even if he could explain breaking a second one.

"Did you see the news this morning?" Pete said, grinning widely.

"No, I was helping Dad with chores," Clark said. He cocked his head at Pete. "Why?"

"Check _this_ out!" Pete said.

He held out the front page of the newspaper. A really good picture of the new Robin graced the title article. He was swinging on a line from one building to another with an intense expression on his face. His lips were quirked in a tiny smile. It looked to Clark like he was trying not to grin because he was having so much fun. Clark stared at it, awed. He'd never seen such a good picture of Robin before, not that Robin had been out there for long. He'd only been noticed in Gotham about three weeks ago.

"Wow…" Clark breathed. He stared while wondering who hid under the cowl.

"Cool, yeah?" Pete said, bouncing up and down so hard that it was difficult to read the article.

"Yeah!" Clark agreed. "I wonder what he's like."

"Don't know," Pete said thoughtfully enough though he kept bouncing. "I wonder how he got to do it. I mean, you know they're all just regular guys. Before he started doing this he was just a kid like us! I still can't believe that someone could go out and do that, stop the bad guys and freaks with nothing but martial arts, snazzy tools and a suit. It's incredible! I wish I could do that. I mean, I'd go out there and wham! Bam! Those freaks would go flying!"

"Yeah," Clark said a lot less enthusiastically.

Clark let Pete ramble on as they went to class. It wasn't that he disagreed with Pete. He didn't. The problem was that he was one of the freaks that Robin fought. Sure, he wasn't out there hurting people or stealing things but everyone in Smallville knew that freaks always went insane in the end. No matter what, Clark knew that someday he'd lose it and then he'd be like the others. He just hoped that he didn't kill anyone when he did turn into a monster.

No matter what his parents said, Clark knew that he was a monster inside. When he was little, he used to fantasize that he was Wonder Woman's son, hidden away safe from the world until she could come and take him home. But as he grew older he realized how stupid that was. He didn't look anything like Wonder Woman. Besides, what danger would be so great that she'd give up her child? She was the strongest woman alive and he would have been raised on Themysciria if he actually had been hers. Anyway, she'd never been pregnant so it was doubly impossible. The loss of that fantasy still hurt.

"Man," Pete complained once they were in their home room, "I wish I lived somewhere else. Gotham, Metropolis, New York, you know? Nothing ever happens here."

"Nothing good anyway," Clark agreed.

They avoided looking at the window that had been boarded over two days ago. The teachers didn't want to talk about the freak that had gone nuts and attacked the school. Clark still wasn't sure why he'd done it, no one was, but it was a shadow over all of them. All the kids avoided looking at the window. No one knew who the freaks were until they lost it. None of them wanted to be a target someday.

Clark couldn't stop thinking about it all. Robin was everything that he'd never be. Where Robin was a hero, Clark was going to end up being a villain. He didn't want to be but what else could he be? With his powers he was dangerous to everyone around him, especially since he couldn't control it sometimes. No matter how hard he practiced, he _couldn't_ keep control all the time. It was the fundamental truth of Clark's life.

'I guess I just have to keep trying,' Clark thought later in the day as Pete got off the bus. 'I don't have much of a choice. I don't want to hurt anyone.'

The thought was a lot more hesitant than it should have been. 

Clark felt like there was a fire inside of him that burned more brightly whenever he got mad. Every time he used his powers it was like that fire got stronger. He tried really hard not to let that part get free. It was scary how much he enjoyed using his powers. Letting loose and doing things was so much fun that he never wanted to stop. Every time he did something the temptation to keep going was enormous, no matter what happened to the world and people around him. Clark sighed and stood as the bus approached his stop. He just had to keep trying. That's what Mom and Dad said and they were right.

"Clark!" Dad called from the barn as Clark walked up the lane. "Come give me a hand!"

"Coming Dad!" Clark called back. "Lemme drop my books!"

Dad nodded and turned back into the barn. Clark put his books inside, smiling at Mom who waved from the laundry room, and then went to see what Dad needed. The hole he'd accidentally punched through the wall had been fixed. A spike of guilt stabbed through Clark. They really couldn't afford to fix things all the time. He needed to stop breaking things.

"Welcome home, son," Dad said, ruffling Clark's hair. "Can you give me a hand with this?"

"Sure," Clark said with a grin as he fixed his hair. "What do you need?"

"The heavy jack's broken again," Dad sighed. "Think you can pick this old tractor up so that I can put it on the blocks?"

"S-sure," Clark said as the uneasy feeling in his stomach doubled.

It was incredibly easy to pick the tractor up. Clark lifted while his dad slid the blocks underneath the axels. Dad smiled and patted Clark's back in thanks. He set to work on engine, muttering to himself as he worked. The uneasy feeling in Clark's stomach combined with that fire that said 'do more!' He fought against it for a long moment until he could push it back down again.

"Dad?" Clark asked. "Can I um, ask you something?"

"Sure, Clark," Dad said absently as he wrestled with one of the bolts that seemed to be stuck. "What is it?"

Clark opened his mouth but nothing came out. 'Will you hate me when I go crazy and attack everyone?' came to mind but it wasn't something he ever wanted to say. 'Why didn't you give me back when you realized I was a freak?' was closer. Pete's enthusiasm for beating up the Smallville freaks hovered on the tip of his tongue until his dad stopped working and looked at him.

"Did you know Robin's picture was in the newspaper this morning?" Clark asked because he couldn't bear the worried frown on Dad's face.

"Yeah, I saw it," Dad said, still frowning. "Why?"

"Um, Pete was saying that he wished he could be Robin," Clark said very quietly. "He said he wanted to be able to go out and stop the freaks from hurting anyone. He wants to be a hero."

"You know I don't like that word, Clark," Dad huffed. "It's not true and it's not polite. The mutants in town aren't freaks. They're just people with powers, that's all. Beating up on people is not being a hero. It's being a bully."

Clark nodded while running his fingers over the bumper of the tractor. "The window at school still hasn't been replaced. I guess it must be on his mind."

"And yours?" Dad asked.

He set his wrench down so that he could run a hand over Clark's cheek. Clark nodded, fighting down tears that he didn't want to shed. Dad sighed and pulled Clark into his arms, holding him tight. Clark hugged him back gently, afraid of squeezing too hard. He never wanted to hurt his Dad, not ever, no matter how crazy he got someday.

"You're not a freak, Clark," Dad murmured into Clark's hair. "You're a twelve-year-old boy with incredible powers, that's all. Someday you'll be a great hero. You'll go out and rescue people from danger, save buildings, change the world. You'll be like Batman and Robin, even more like Wonder Woman."

"I break things," Clark whimpered into Dad's shirt. He wasn't crying. He wasn't. "I'll hurt people."

"You're young," Dad chuckled. "Every kid breaks things, Clark. It's not the end of the world. You'll figure out how to control your strength in time. Every time you have a growth spurt you go through an adjustment period. Someday you'll stop growing and you'll be able to get it all under control."

Clark nodded even though he didn't think he'd ever be able to control it all. He was just too strong. Everything was like paper to him. Metal and stone were no tougher than cardboard. People were so fragile. The blood of the chick he'd accidentally crushed when he was six still seemed to drip through his fingers. Mom's wrist when he was seven, Dad's thumb when he was nine, all the injuries he'd inflicted on the people he cared about haunted him, but he couldn't show how it upset him. He caused enough problems as it was. Making Mom and Dad worry about him was the last thing he wanted.

The fire inside growled. It didn't think he should be so worried about everyone else. That part of his soul (did monsters have souls?) thought that everyone else should look out for him, not that he should look out for them. They were weak and soft and if they got hurt, well, that was their fault for not being stronger. Why should Clark have to do all the hard work? They should shoulder their fair share of it.

"I'll keep trying," Clark whispered after pushing the fire down so that it wouldn't grumble at him anymore.

"Good boy," Dad said, releasing him so that he could smile down into Clark's eyes. "Now, you up to helping me get this old beast working again?"

"Sure," Clark said. He swallowed down his tears so that he could smile at Dad without crying.

They managed to get the tractor running again just before dinner. Mom helped Clark with his homework. She seemed to realize that he was upset about something because she gave him lots of extra hugs and kept petting his hair. Once dinner was over it was time for evening chores. He helped Dad and then went up to the loft that Mom and Dad had said was his to do with as he wanted.

He didn't have much in it yet. Mom had let him take an old desk from the attic. Pete's parents had let him take the ancient couch from their basement when they replaced it. Other than that, Clark hadn't done much here yet. He puttered for a while, putting up pictures and then taking them down.

"Why do I bother?" Clark whispered as darkness fell around him. He didn't turn on the old lamp Dad had found for him. "Why do I try? I'm going to destroy it all eventually. There's no point."

He sat on the couch in the dark until Mom called from the house for him to come in to bed. Clark stood reluctantly. Mom's second call, this time in a more worried tone of voice, reminded him of why he kept trying. Even if he was destined to be a monster or a villain, he had to keep trying for now. His parents loved him and for them he'd do his best.

+++++

Hand to hand combat. Weapons. Acrobatics. Flying.

Lex had thought that learning how to fight would be his biggest challenge as Robin. There were so many enemies and all of them were larger and stronger than he was. Bruce, Mercy and Tim worked hard to make sure that he was prepared to face them. The first time he had a serious injury (not that Lex thought getting stabbed was that serious given that the wound healed in days) Jason appeared to teach him all the things that the others hadn't.

"Training room," Jason snapped at Lex precisely three days after the stabbing and the first morning after he returned to patrolling. "Now!"

"What?" Lex gasped. He'd been putting on his clothes to go down to breakfast, moving a bit more slowly than normal but that was to be expected.

"Move it, Baldy," Jason snarled.

Lex moved. He wasn't sure what to expect when he got to the training room in the cave but Jason's fist headed straight at his face wasn't it. Lex dodged, blocked, rolled, did everything he could think of to escape Jason's assault, failing more times than not. When Jason clipped him in the chin just right it triggered a flashback to his father's beatings.

He came out of the flashback to find Jason methodically shredding the punching bag by stabbing it repeatedly while calling Lionel every name possible and then some. 

It didn't change how Jason trained him. If anything, Lex thought that Jason worked harder to trigger the flashbacks in his own brutal form of desensitization. Strangely enough, it worked. After a few weeks training with Jason Lex no longer had flashbacks of any sort, no matter how brutal things got on patrol or in training. He was also far more effective as a fighter, though Lex knew he'd never have the raw power to be a heavy hitter.

He didn't ask if Jason still had flashbacks to his death at the Joker's hands.

Damian's decision to train Lex was a good bit less clear. Rather than directly approach Lex, Damian started ambushing him. A knife would lance out of the shadows, nearly cutting Lex's face. Someone, Damian of course, would land on his back and then tie him up so tightly that it took forever to get free. Every time Lex managed to anticipate an attack, Damian would disappear to strike again when he wasn't prepared.

"Why is he doing this?" Lex snarled as he struggled to slip free from the latest set of bonds that had him hanging by his heels from the ceiling of the red study.

"It's Damian," Tim sighed, watching but not helping. He seemed to be timing Lex's efforts to get free. "He probably decided that you needed more practice."

"I swear," Lex snarled once he cut the last rope and dropped to the ground, "I'm going to pin his ass down and get a straight answer out of him. I don't have to put up with this!"

"Good luck on that," Tim laughed. He gave Lex a hand up. Honest amusement shone in his eyes. "I don't think anyone's managed to do that since he was about your age."

Lex grumbled and set to work on tracking Damian down to find out what was going on. That led him into lessons about tracking in both an urban and rural environment. They didn't help him with the continuing attacks. He learned about computers while trying to find out where Damian went when he went to ground. Bruce taught him about finger printing and security systems, always with an amused smirk on his face. Alfred taught him some really incredible ways of hiding in plain sight, which explained a little better to Lex why Alfred was so important to the others. It was strange realizing that some of Bruce's better tricks came straight from Alfred.

Detection. Computers. Chemistry and biology. Psychology. Data analysis.

Lex learned and learned, especially once he realized that all of the things he was studying were things that were important for being Robin. It stopped being a way to get at Damian and turned into the next level of training for his job. Both Tim and Bruce got smugly satisfied expressions the first time Lex admitted that his goal wasn't to get at Damian anymore.

He finally managed to catch Damian in the library after Thanksgiving dinner many months later. Damian smirked at him when Lex stomped in. He'd been reading the Wayne Family History, which made Lex pause. There was no way that he'd give into his urge to (attempt to) beat Damian up with that out. Bruce's memento of his mother wasn't something that Lex would risk damaging. The smirk on Damian's lips told Lex that he knew it and that was why he was reading it.

"What is up with the attacks?" Lex demanded.

"You weren't working hard enough," Damian sniffed. "Fighting isn't sufficient. You have to be better. You weren't making the effort. I made sure that you became better."

Lex stared at him with his jaw dropped open. "This was… training? Your way of training me? I thought you were trying to kill me."

"Of course it was training," Damian said. The smirk transformed into something a great deal more evil, something that made him look entirely too much like his grandfather R'as al Ghul. "If I'd wanted you dead you'd have been dead on the first attack, Lex."

"I can't do this," Lex sighed while rubbing his scalp.

"Never say that," Damian snapped at him. He slapped the history down on the table. "If you say it often enough you'll believe it."

"I meant that I can't beat the hell out you for jerking me around," Lex said, rolling his eyes. "Next time you decide I need a lesson, at least put a note on the knife saying 'not good enough' or something, will you?"

"I might," Damian said. He chuckled and headed for the door. "If I feel like it. By the way, there's a primed grenade in this room. I suggest you find it before one of the others comes to get a book."

Damian laughed at Lex's incoherent shout of rage. He kept going, leaving Lex to find what turned out to be a very real grenade tucked behind the cookbooks that Mercy, Hope and Alfred consulted on a regular basis. Disarming it required going to get Tim and Bruce, who insisted that Lex did the actual work while they gave him instructions. That led to the rest of the long weekend being filled with lessons on explosives and how to arm and disarm them, plus plans for more explosives training over the next few months. He was grouchy in the extreme when he went back to school.

"Man," Kyle said, "you need a date, Lex."

"Are you offering?" Lex snapped at him without thinking first.

Lex tried not to rub his bisexuality into Kyle's face but he was too grouchy to censor his words. Sara started laughing as Kyle went several shades of red and spluttered like a motorboat. Lex flapped a hand at him, rolling his eyes. Two years later and they were all still friends. Sadly, two years later and Kyle was still trying to get into Sara's pants with no success.

"I'm not gay!" Kyle protested.

"I didn't say that _you_ were," Lex snapped at him.

"Though one does wonder given how much you hang around with us," Sara said, shoulder bumping Lex and grinning at his snarl at her. "Seriously, you'd think he'd have left a while ago, like oh, maybe when I told him I was a lesbian?"

Kyle whined like he was leaky tire, still so red in the face that he looked like he'd been burned. Lex snorted. Sara poked his shoulder again, pulling Lex's attention away from Kyle's mumbling grumbles about them both.

"You are awfully cranky for having had a week off," Sara said. "What's up?"

"Just… family," Lex sighed as he mentally tried to edit his week off into something acceptable for public consumption. "We were all there and no matter how big the manor is, it's not big enough for that many personalities that conflict that badly. Damian was driving me nuts the whole time. If this is what having a big brother is like I think I prefer being an only child."

Sara nodded and told them stories about her family dinner and the fistfight that had happened on the lawn before class started. It was close enough to what had happened to Lex that he was able to find a way to tell the grenade story without telling them about the grenade. The lessons didn't have to be edited at all. They knew Lex studied crazy things. He didn't tell them why, as they had easily accepted his early excuse of getting to learn all the things Lionel wouldn't let him learn.

"Man, I'd hate to have my old man so focused on my lessons," Kyle commented. He made a face like someone had just fed him a lemon. "I'd never be able to do anything."

"It's not like that," Lex protested quietly as the teacher came in.

He didn't get to finish the thought out loud. It wasn't that he couldn't do things. Everything that he was learning was about 'can', not 'can't'. The Bat family had weird ways of encouraging Lex but everything that they did was all about teaching him that he could do anything he put his mind to, no matter how impossible it seemed.

'My life is defined by 'I can'," Lex thought while opening his textbook. He smiled. It was the best thing about becoming a Wayne. The others might drive him crazy on a regular basis but it seemed like no matter what he wanted to do, he could do it if he tried hard enough.

+++++

"Be careful, sweetie," Mom called as Clark headed outside to help with the chores. "Don't let anyone see you doing things."

"Yes ma'am," Clark called back.

Clark automatically checked the road to see if anyone was driving by. Nell was so Clark waved and walked at human speed to the barn. His body burned to go faster, to use the powers that kept increasing inside of him. He didn't do it. Mucking the stalls took much longer at human speed but the cows were there so he couldn't speed. Since the last accident they tended to panic when he moved too fast around them.

Normally Saturdays were good days that let him burn off some of the energy that his body seemed to accumulate but today wasn't like that. Every time Clark thought he'd get to the chance to do something out of the ordinary a roadblock appeared. He spent most of the morning reminding himself that he needed to be normal. After that last mutant to attack the mayor the FBI was in town checking everyone out. He couldn't get caught. It would be horrible for Mom and Dad. Clark almost wished that he were found out—at least then he'd get to fight back when they took him away.

Dad was just as worried as Clark was. It showed in how he watched Clark, supervising his work. He kept scanning the road. Clark caught him peering into the woods at the edge of the far field as if he was afraid that someone was spying on them. By the time they headed back inside for lunch Clark thought he was going to come out of his skin.

"You're twitchy today," Dad commented while washing his hands.

"I just…" Clark waved his arms absently. 

He tried to convey both the energy driving him and the invisible bonds holding him back. He was very careful not to hit anything. In the last two years his powers had only increased, not decreased. He no longer felt heat or cold like everyone else. Nothing seemed to hurt him. Two days ago he'd tripped and put his hand into the wood chipper. It had to be scrapped. Clark came out without so much as a scratch.

"You could work on your homework," Mom suggested. "That might help you focus."

"It's not focusing that's the problem, Mom," Clark complained. "I feel like I'm going to explode or something. No, not literally."

They both had whipped around to stare at him. The way they relaxed minutely but stayed wary made the part inside of him that wanted to be free growl. They sat down to eat. Mom watched him closely as if she was trying to see inside of his mind. Dad just ate, consuming his lunch as efficiently as possible so that he could get back to work. Clark poked at his food, still twitching.

"I'm going to go for a run," Clark announced after a couple of minutes. "I can't do this. I need to burn some of this energy off or I'm not going to be good for anything."

"Be careful," Mom said, standing when Clark stood. She caught his arm, holding him in place only because of his love for her. She gripped his arm as hard as she could but it felt like a gentle caress to Clark. "Don't be seen, sweetie."

"I won't be Mom," Clark promised. "I know what would happen if I got caught right now."

"Don't be gone for too long," Dad said with a tired sigh. "You're fourteen. You don't have any reason or way to be gone for long periods."

"Yes sir," Clark said. "I don't think it'll take too long. I just have to move."

Mom finally let Clark's arm go. Clark sped out of the house, only pausing long enough to make sure that the door shut behind him. He ran down to Metropolis. The busy streets looked like they'd been stopped in time as he passed by. It wasn't enough so he kept going, heading down south to Florida, right down to the ocean at the very tip of the state. He turned and ran back north, turning left to head through the south. New Orleans was muggy but Clark barely felt it. Las Vegas was hot and so dry that the heat felt like a hammer, even to Clark. Los Angeles followed, then San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

He paused to look up at the Needle in downtown Seattle, choking at the price of admission tickets. Clark sped onwards. He turned southwards, heading for the Grand Canyon. He'd avoided it on most of his runs because it seemed too exposed but this time he didn't care. Maybe something much bigger than he was would help him calm down and deal with the voice inside of him that kept demanding he do more, take more chances.

"Wow," Clark breathed as he came to a stop on the edge of one of the side canyons.

The entire world seemed to be painted in colors of gold and red as he stood there. The layers of earth reminded him of the sand jars his class had made when he was little. Pete's mom still had hers. Clark had broken his on the way home from school, accidentally crushing it in little hands that were too strong.

"I'm still too strong," Clark murmured.

He clenched one hand into a fist, wondering if there was anything stronger than him. It would be so easy to take what he wanted but what he wanted wasn't anything physical. Money, cars, clothes, all those physical things were wonderful but they didn't address what Clark's heart yearned for.

"I want to be free," Clark said so quietly that the wind whisked his words away. He shivered at saying it out loud, even though no one was there to hear him. He repeated it, more loudly this time. "I want to be free. I want to be free!"

Clark shouted the last word. 'Free' echoed back from the canyon like someone mocking him from the other side. The burning need to move and do things welled up again, this time a thousand times more strongly. He turned and ran, following the top of the canyon. One place seemed narrow enough to jump so Clark did it.

He made it easily, practically without effort, so Clark found another wider gap and jumped that. And then another. And another. All the while the part inside of him that wanted to use his powers was cheering him on. It felt so _good_ to cut loose and see what he could do. Clark gave in utterly, letting that inner voice take over. He ran straight for the main miles-wide gap of the Grand Canyon.

The instant he leaped Clark knew that he wasn't going to make it. He gasped and somehow reached out with an ability that he hadn't known was there. The leap's momentum increased so that he was soaring through the air towards the far side of the canyon. Clark laughed out loud as he tumbled and rolled on landing. He was going so fast that he smashed into a boulder, pulverizing it.

The huge sound and cloud of dust woke Clark's normal caution. He ran from the site as quickly as he could, only stopping when he ended up in Gotham on the business part of the waterfront. His heart was still pounding from combined fear and exhilaration. That had been so stupid but so incredible.

'I flew,' Clark thought. 'I flew. I actually flew!'

Clark walked at human speed along the waterfront. He had to shove his hands into his pockets to hide how hard they were shaking. One building had television monitors showing news reports on Batman and Robin. Apparently they had teamed up with Wonder Woman last night to fight some big villain in New York City. The current time on the corner of the screen made Clark wince. He'd been gone too long. His five minutes of stolen time had already stretched into ten minutes.

"I don't want to go back," Clark whispered as the seconds dragged on and he hadn't started for home. "I don't want to."

He shoved down the part of himself that wanted to keep running, keep doing things that no one else could. Mom and Dad loved him. They needed him. His help around the farm helped keep the family afloat financially. Clark finally made himself run home after another five minutes of battles with his inner self. Dad was just finishing up his pie and coffee. Mom jumped up from her place by the front window when Clark ran in the side door.

"Feel better?" Dad asked. He smiled at Clark warmly despite the slightly wary look in his eyes.

"Yeah," Clark said. He sat back down at the table, picking up his sandwich. Now he could eat. "I think I needed that."

"Where did you go?" Mom asked. She looked incredibly relieved to see him acting more normally.

"Down to Metropolis, then to Florida," Clark said. "I ran over to LA and then up to Seattle. Did you know that the tickets to get in the Space Needle are seventeen dollars? Just to ride the elevator up to the top and look around. That's so expensive!"

Mom and Dad exchanged little grins as they listened to him talk about what he'd seen. They seemed reassured by what he told them. Clark very carefully didn't tell them about the Grand Canyon. He didn't tell them about flying. He didn't tell them about going to Gotham or not wanting to come back. They didn't need to know that. Clark's inner voice justified it as not wanting to worry them but he knew what it actually was.

Someday he would have to run away and not come back. He didn't want them to know where to look for him when he did leave. If they didn't know then they couldn't get in trouble when he became the villain he was destined to be.

+++++

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure what to do about it," Lex said to Steph.

"I suppose he is a little out of your league," Steph said with an understanding nod. "That level of power is more in Wonder Woman's territory than yours."

"Except that he seems to be a kid about my age," Lex agreed. "I'd have freaked out if I'd had Wonder Woman contact me out of the blue. She still makes me nervous and I've known her for years now."

They headed down the hallway towards the small dining room together. Steph lit up when Tim ran up from behind them and took her hand. Their relationship seemed to be on again after a dry spell when Steph was off in Star City helping Roy, the latest Green Arrow, deal with one of his villains. Tim's temper had been so bad during that time that Lex had started patrolling on his own rather than deal with him directly. Hopefully her return to Gotham would sweeten Tim's mood. So far it seemed to be working. Lex just hoped that it kept up. Things went much more smoothly when they were together.

"What exactly are we talking about?" Tim asked.

"That new meta that was spotted at the Grand Canyon a month or so ago," Lex explained. "He's been sighted in a couple of other places around the country in the weeks since then."

"Causing trouble," Steph interjected.

"Ah," Tim said, nodding as they entered the dining room. "Damian complained about that one. What's he been up to that's worrying you?"

Lex took his spot at the table. Bruce was already there with Barbara. They looked at Lex for explanation as well. Sometimes the weight of experience that routinely gathered around Bruce was overwhelming, as though Lex was being smothered by their years of knowledge. He shook it off as Jason and Damian came in, sniping at each other as always.

"The problem?" Bruce asked, hushing Damian and Jason with a stern look.

"There's a new meta, a young man about my age, who appears to be heading down the wrong path," Lex explained. "He's the one who was photographed at the Grand Canyon flying across it and then crashing. I've found reports of him in Miami, New Orleans, LA and Portland, as well as what might have been a couple of incidents in Toronto, Mexico City and _maybe_ Argentina. He's larger than Jason, possibly as strong or stronger than Wonder Woman and may be as fast as the Flash. Plus he seems to be learning how to fly."

"Interesting," Dick said. He came in carrying a tray of drinks for Mercy and Hope, who followed with rolling trays. "He might be a good ally."

"The problem with that is that he doesn't seem interested in heroics," Lex said. "It's not clear from the limited reports I've dug up exactly what he's after. Sometimes he's just there. Sometimes he tries to help. Other times he seems to be out of control. He never leaves a name and no one has a clear description of him. The few pictures that have been taken were so blurry that they were worthless. I'm not sure yet what to do about him. I don't know if any of our tools would work on him. I don't think I have the ability to catch him, much less hold him."

Jason, Tim and Dick exchanged sudden grins that made Damian groan. Steph started laughing, as did Barbara, much more quietly. Bruce's lips curled in a little smirk that made the metaphorical hair on the back of Lex's neck stand up. They all seemed to have a much better idea of what Lex should do than he did.

"What?" Lex asked warily. He looked Damian who sighed and shook his head.

"They think you need to work on your team building skills," Damian explained sourly.

"And working with these people on a daily basis doesn't constitute practice in working with a team?" Lex asked. He hooked a thumb at the others.

Lex completely ignored the mildly indignant expression on Tim, Jason and Dick's faces. Barbara was laughing into her drink. Steph was laughing so hard that she was crying. Bruce had his stone face on but his eyes were laughing.

"I doubt that they consider it to be sufficient," Damian said with a little snort. "Family is family. They obviously feel you should work on creating teams, not merely participating in them."

"Lovely," Lex drawled. He rolled his eyes, which made Damian smirk.

"You know, we are right here," Dick said, leaning his chin on one hand.

"And your point is what?" Damian asked. "You've talked over our heads many times."

"Exactly," Lex agreed.

"There's something very wrong with the universe when Lex and Damian are teaming up on the rest of us," Tim complained.

"Hell might just be freezing over," Jason agreed.

Mercy and Hope started serving dinner, cutting off the snark with excellent food. They discussed the problem over dinner and by the time they were done Lex had to agree that having a team with varied abilities would probably make catching his mystery meta easier. He didn't particularly like the idea of forming a team and having to deal with all the different personalities but it would very likely work.

Two days later he stepped out of the elevator and headed into Oliver's penthouse, looking for him, Roy or Roy's daughter Lian. In Lex's opinion, which only half of the family shared, the Arrows were the proper place to start. Oliver smiled when he saw Lex, waving him into the huge kitchen.

"Lex!" Oliver said. "Can I get you anything? Is this a social visit?"

"No, thank you," Lex said, smiling at him politely. "I was actually looking for Lian."

"She's on the practice range," Oliver said. He raised an eyebrow in a silent question about Lex's motives that made him blush right out to the tips of his ears.

"I've been advised that I need to work on my team building skills," Lex explained with a tired sigh. "Lian seemed the proper place to start."

Oliver laughed out loud, throwing his head back and grinning at Lex as if it was the best joke he'd ever heard. Lex made a mental note to be cautious about explaining what he was up to when speaking to the older generation. They all seemed to find this entirely too amusing. 

He got directions and then headed down in the private elevator to the practice range that Oliver had set up. It was more impressive than the practice rooms in the cave in terms of size and obstacles. Lex memorized the layout from the observation room while watching Lian work her way though the obstacles. Roy nodded to Lex from the control console but didn't say anything to him.

Lian was faster than Damian, more accurate with her bow and arrows than Lex had thought was humanly possible, and quite graceful in ways that made Lex feel more like Kyle than himself. He really shouldn't be watching her hips as she ran through the last part of the course and reached her goal.

"Good job," Roy's voice said over the PA. "That's it for today, kiddo. You have a guest."

"A guest?" Lian panted while pulling off her mask. She stared up at the observation room curiously.

She wasn't panting by the time she got up to the observation room, but she was still bright-cheeked and perky. She'd changed out of her Arsenal uniform and into tight jeans and a purple T-shirt that did absolutely nothing for Lex's ability to look her in the eye. Roy laughed at the delighted noise Lian made when she spotted him. Rather than talk with him listening in, they headed upstairs to the balcony overlooking the city.

"So what's up?" Lian asked. "You don't usually come out to Star City."

"I have a meta who's causing trouble," Lex explained, "and rather than give me assistance, my family felt it would be appropriate for me to work on my team building skills."

"Teen Titans?" Lian squeaked, bouncing on her toes and making Lex have to work very hard not to stare at her chest. "Oh cool! Who were you thinking of?"

"I know I need a speedster," Lex said. He turned to look over the city so he'd stop staring and blushing. "So obviously the twins. He seems to be learning to fly so I was thinking of that newest Green Lantern, the girl."

"Sure," Lian said, nodding agreement. "She's a bit of a brat but I'm sure she'd join up if only to annoy her older brother. I met her a couple of weeks ago after this huge meta attacked some people in the city."

"Large, dark hair, very strong and fast?" Lex asked. "You can't quite see him because he's a big blur?"

Surprised, Lian nodded. They compared notes and it was quickly apparent that they were talking about the same person. Lian had actually seen him in person, which was more than Lex had. She seemed quite impressed by the meta, if worried about his raw power. The whole mess in Star City had begun with the meta defending some kids against gang bangers but it had escalated into an all out battle that had destroyed several buildings.

"So he's been all over the world?" Lian asked. "How are we supposed to deal with that?"

"First we get the twins in on this," Lex explained. "They can track him. Hopefully we can figure out where he's from and approach him non-confrontationally. Given how powerful he is, we do need to be careful. I just wish I could think of a hero our age who was as strong as he is."

"We could contact Diana," Lian said thoughtfully. "She might know someone."

Lex agreed somewhat reluctantly. He could already see the amused, maternal expression on Diana's face. They started with the twins. Getting Jai and Iris to visit was as easy as Lian pulling out her cell phone. That Jai was on her speed dial shouldn't have surprised Lex but it did. It did a lovely job of killing his half-formed romantic thoughts when Jai arrived literally milliseconds after hearing Lian's voice. Iris arrived moments after that, beaming at them both.

"Ah, who's he?" Jai asked. He hooked a thumb at Lex as derisively as possible.

"Lex Wayne!" Iris squealed. She appeared at his side, rubbing her shoulder against Lex's. "I didn't know you knew Lian. I would have come to visit much sooner if I had."

Lian snickered while Jai squawked. All Lex could do was remember the huge grins on Tim, Jason and Dick's faces when they'd suggested contacting the twins. Somehow he knew that they'd known about Lian and Jai's interest in each other. He desperately hoped that they didn't know that Iris appeared to have a bit of a crush on him. If they did he was never going to hear the end of it.

"Teen Titans huh?" Jai said thoughtfully once Lex had explained what he wanted to do. "Makes sense."

"We've seen him," Iris agreed, nodding and making her ponytail bob. She seemed younger than her twin but Lex thought that might just be the hero worship in her eyes as she gazed at Lex. Or it might be the sullen attitude that Jai was sporting as he glared at Iris standing just a bit too close to Lex. "Haven't chased or raced him or anything but we have seen him. He seems really unhappy."

"Do you know where he lives?" Lex asked.

"No," Iris said. Jai shrugged his agreement with her, which was somewhat disappointing but not surprising.

"All right," Lex said. "I'm going to work on trying to establish a pattern to his activities. I think we're going to need someone with super strength so I'll talk to Wonder Woman or maybe Wonder Girl. They might know someone our age who can help out."

"I'll talk to Ollie about setting up a base for us," Lian offered. "Probably someplace Midwestern, just to be centrally located. Metropolis might work. There aren't any superheroes based in the city."

"I can get Cerdian in if you want him," Iris offered. "He thinks I'm cute. He's got all the water abilities plus some pretty cool magic. That might offset our meta's abilities."

"Good idea," Lex said, nodding approval. "If you see him, try following to see where he's going. I don't want to spook him but I really think we need to intervene. He looks like he's getting more violent as time goes on."

They parted ways and Lex headed back to Gotham on the jet. It felt strange to have what appeared to be his own team. Lian looked like she'd make an excellent second in command. Jai and Iris would probably be his best bet on tracking their meta down. Between their abilities and Cerdian's, if he chose to join, Lex thought they had half a chance of dealing with their meta. They might even have a chance of dealing with any other problems that came their way. They still needed a heavy hitter so Lex was pretty sure he was going to have to talk to Bruce about talking to Diana. He wasn't aware of any younger Themyscirians who might be interested in joining but she would know.

"I'm going to have to set up group training for us," Lex realized as the plane took off. "We have to integrate our fighting styles. God, this is going to be so much work!"

He chuckled ruefully. Yet another level of training for him to master, though this one looked a thousand times harder that the ones to date. How the heck was he supposed to deal with romance and crushes while going to school, fighting crime and training? Interpersonal skills weren't something that he'd had to work on with his family. They were the definition of dysfunctional, after all.

+++++

"Clark!"

Clark jumped and whirled, staring into Chloe's concerned eyes. He blinked at her while wondering a little desperately what he'd missed. Between his growing powers, the encounters when he'd been out running and the Sheriff's constant efforts to find all the mutants in Smallville, he was completely distracted. Not to mention Mom. That was really getting to him in ways he hadn't expected.

"Sorry," Clark said as she frowned harder. "I didn't hear you. What did you say?"

"I asked if you were going to stare at your locker all day," Chloe said. "Are you all right? You've been really distracted the last couple of weeks."

"Oh, well, just thinking about stuff," Clark said. He tried to shrug her concern away even though he knew that it wouldn't work.

"I noticed," Chloe said with a snort. "You do know that you can talk to me about anything, don't you?"

"I know," Clark said miserably. "This isn't something that you can help with, Chlo. I have to work it out on my own."

"Talking can help working things out," Chloe offered.

She shifted her bag on her shoulder while watching him gather his books. The expectation in her eyes made him squirm. No matter how much he wanted to tell her about everything that was going on, he couldn't. Ever since she'd arrived she'd been part of the efforts to find the mutants, though she seemed to think that they needed treatment, not to be thrown in jail or an asylum. Either way, he couldn't tell her about his powers. That wasn't safe for her to know.

And if he couldn't tell her about his powers he couldn't tell her about the heroes that had started tracking him when he was out running. It was getting to the point where he felt hunted every time he stepped outside of his house. Heck, sometimes he felt like there were people watching him while he was hiding in his loft but he'd yet to see or hear any of them in Smallville so it was probably just his imagination. With the new X-ray vision and super hearing that had developed he probably would have noticed.

In the final analysis, the only thing he could tell her was the one thing he'd promised Mom and Dad he wouldn't talk about. Chloe poked his arm as they headed outside, her worry obvious enough that they gathered a few odd looks. Clark made a face. He waited until they were a little ways away from the others before giving into Chloe's prodding.

"I promised not to say anything," Clark said quietly to Chloe. "So you gotta swear to keep this to yourself."

"Sure," Chloe said with a confident nod.

"Okay, you know Mom and Dad could never have kids, right?" Clark said without meeting her eyes. He didn't think that he could look at her while telling her all of this.

"Yeah," Chloe said. She sounded puzzled but willing to listen. That willingness made him feel better at the same time it made him tense up.

"Well, they never stopped trying," Clark said slowly. "And a couple of times they… thought I'd have a sibling. But I um, I never did."

"Oh wow," Chloe breathed. This time her voice was full of sympathy. "So they… lost some babies?"

Clark nodded. His stomach was doing flips. Everything about the situation upset him. Most of the time he was excited but he also felt guilty and jealous and worried. So many emotions battled inside of him lately that even running wasn't doing much for calming him down. Chloe put her hand on his elbow, stopping both of them in their tracks. Clark met her eyes. The worry and confusion was probably clear in his eyes.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"Chloe, they _never stopped trying,_ " Clark said. "And…"

"Now?" Chloe gasped, staring up at him. "Is she--? Is the baby…?"

"It's not going well," Clark said very quietly. "They've never admitted to anyone in town about the other miscarriages and Mom's afraid to jinx this one but she's not doing well and they're both so worried and upset. And I can't help but worry about her. I mean, I get them wanting to have a kid of their own, I really do, but she's sick and after so many other losses…"

"Oh Clark," Chloe breathed.

Her heart was in her eyes as she hugged him. Clark hugged her back. He just wished that the hug made him feel less conflicted. The selfish part of him inside snarled about the baby, resenting its intrusion into their life. No matter how much he wanted his parents to be happy, that part of him hated the thought of sharing them. That part of him hated the thought of Mom being so worried and sick. Actually, both sides of him hated that. There was no way out of the situation that didn't make him feel like a creep.

"It'll be okay," Chloe declared once she let him go. "You'll see. No matter what happens, it'll be okay."

"I hope so," Clark sighed. "This is the longest ever, so I'm hopeful. We all are. She's actually starting to show a little."

Chloe nodded brightly despite the worry in her eyes. Biting back his sigh was hard. Clark knew he shouldn't have told her but something had to give somewhere. They just barely caught the bus in time. She sat extra close on the way home, talking about anything but Mom, but the concern was obvious all the same.

The next few days didn't do anything to relieve the pressure. Two mutants freaked out, one of them going after Chloe. Clark saved her without being seen but only by causing a lot of destruction that got noticed by the FBI. Listening for anyone searching for mutants actually helped him get control over his hearing, along with Dad and Mom's help. Focusing it like a radio was a really helpful suggestion, even if the actual process of doing it wasn't quite like that.

It was the heat vision that finally changed everything. Dad helped Clark figure out a training method for it (and Clark was never, ever, in a million years going to admit that it was fantasies about Whitney, not Lana, that first set it off) before heading back inside to check on Mom. By the time Clark had a basic grasp on how to keep from setting the world on fire every time he had a sexy thought it was nearly dinnertime.

"Feeling better, sweetie?" Mom asked when he went back inside.

"Yeah," Clark said. "My eyes are tired but yeah, I think I'm okay for now."

Mom and Dad exchanged tense looks. The way they looked at each other made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Clark didn't know what was going on but it seemed like yet another thing was about to land on his shoulders.

"There's something that we need to tell you," Mom said. "We've kept it from you all this time because we were worried about outsiders finding out but both of us agree that you're mature enough to handle it now."

"Uh, I have a family somewhere and they didn't want me?" Clark asked, grasping blinding at the worst thing he could think of.

"Maybe," Dad muttered. He winced when Mom smacked his elbow. "Let's head out to the storm cellar, Clark. There's something you need to see."

The 'something' turned out to be the old piece of equipment that Dad kept covered with a tarp in the back corner of the cellar behind the shelves of canned food and boxes of junk. Mom was vibrating as Dad pulled the tarp off of it. Clark nearly fell over when it was revealed.

It.

Spaceship.

He…!

Clark's brain seemed to have stopped cold the instant it was revealed. Dad cleared his throat and said something about a meteor crashing close to them during the shower, driving them off of the road. Mom picked up the explanation with something about a naked little boy with the most adorable laugh she'd ever heard.

He couldn't hear what they were saying. It took him a minute to realize that the rushing sound in his ears was the pounding of his pulse. Mom and Dad were still talking, saying things like being sorry for hiding it from him and just wanting what was best for him. They looked at him with pleading eyes. Mom had her hands over her belly in a protective gesture that had to be instinctive.

"No, it's okay," Clark heard his voice say. "I understand you not telling me. I would have said something when I was younger."

The terrible tension in their posture drained away. Mom smiled and took his hand with such a grateful look that Clark wanted to bolt. The voice inside of him was silent for the first time in a very long time. He helped Dad cover It up again, being exaggeratedly careful not to touch It. They didn't talk about It once they left the storm cellar. Mom had them carry some boxes of stuff to give a reason for why they went in there.

White noise blanked out much of what they said until dinner and the evening chores were done.

"I'm going to go for a run," Clark announced once he'd finished washing the dishes.

"Be careful, sweetie," Mom warned him.

"I will be," Clark promised.

He ran out the door and then straight to the storm cellar instead of out onto the road. It was dark in the cellar but Clark could make out the shape of It lurking in the corner. That part of the cellar seemed darker than the rest of the little underground room. Pulling the tarp off was an exercise in will power. Clark felt like he was being torn apart by all the conflicting impulses.

"I'm an alien," Clark whispered.

The quiet words made everything Mom and Dad had told him real. He hated it. He loved it. He wanted to run away. He wanted to smash the thing into a million tiny pieces. He wanted to study it until he understood. He wanted to bury it and forget that he'd ever been told.

Bad enough to be a freak. At least this morning he'd thought that he was human, that he was like everyone else at the core. The strange impulses and powers made so much more sense now. No wonder he wasn't like everyone else. He _literally_ wasn't like them.

"I'm not human," Clark murmured. "I never was human. I never will be human."

He touched the nose of the ship, tracing the edge of its shield-like shape. It felt foreign, like nothing he'd ever touched before. Clark snatched his hand away but moments later he was caressing the thing with both hands.

"Why did they send me here?" Clark asked the ship. "What am I supposed to do? Who am I, really? Did have a name?"

A million questions battered his mind. There were so many things he needed to know now. The ship was silent and still. It didn't respond to him. Clark shuddered, smacking the palm of his hand against an octagonal shape at the nose of the ship. Something shifted under his hand.

Humming filled the storm cellar, making Clark step back. The ship glowed from within as it slowly rose off of the ground and rotated until it was staring right at him. Clark swallowed, trembling. He forced himself to take a step forward to touch the octagonal spot again. The rounded part at the center of the ship opened, bathing Clark in white light.

"Fear not, Kal-El," the ship said in a deep voice that made something deep inside Clark shudder with recognition. This was a voice he'd known a very long time ago. "I am Jor-El, your father. I am his memory, his will, transferred to this vessel to protect you. I am to fulfill his promise and guide you all the days of your life."

"I don't understand," Clark said. He took another step closer, staring into the bright light and alien writing that rotated around the inside of the ship. That was familiar too, something that he knew he'd seen before he could remember. "Why am I here? Where am I from?"

"You are the last son of Krypton," Jor-El said with just a hint of sorrow. "When you traveled through he cosmos, you carried the hopes and dreams of your people. They now live through you, Kal-El."

Clark nodded eagerly, taking another step forward to rest his hand inside of the opening of the ship. It was warm and comforting. He remembered it, remembered that sensation engulfing him, holding him safe. His stomach flipped at the thought that this had been his ship, his protection on his way to Earth.

"What happened to our world?" Clark asked. "Why was I sent here?"

The light of the ship shifted and dimmed as if in response to a change of emotion on Jor-El's part. "Krypton was destroyed," Jor-El explained. "Your mother and I managed to send you to safety just before our world died. We could not stop the destruction of our world so we saved that which was most precious to us: you."

"But why here?" Clark asked. "Why this world in particular? Was it random?"

"On this world you will be as a God among men, my son," Jor-El said proudly. "They are a primitive people but there is promise in them. It is your destiny to lead them to greatness, Kal-El. Rule them with strength and take them to the next level."

Clark gasped and stepped back again. He shivered as the fury inside of him roared its pleasure at that idea. Shaking his head, Clark continued to back up until he was pressed against the far wall of the storm cellar. The ship's light brightened, spearing Clark with a beam of light.

"It is time for you to accept your destiny," Jor-El declared. "By the setting of the star Sol tomorrow you will return to me. Your destiny will be fulfilled. Your thoughts are not a mystery to me, Kal-El. These people who have raised have served their purpose. It is time to leave them. You must let go of your past. I will guide you to your future."

"No!" Clark said, horror warring against relief that he could leave, that he didn't have to stay here where everything was so hard. His parent's pain if he did disappear strengthened his will. "No. I won't do that. They're important to me. They're all important to me! You can't force me to leave them!"

The light turned into a fierce laser, catching Clark in the chest. He tried to scream but the pain was too strong for him to catch his breath. The light traced a pattern of fire on his chest. Clark collapsed to his knees, panting and shaking. He pulled down the neck of his shirt, running his fingers over the brand new scar that had formed.

"You will obey me, Kal-El," Jor-El said sternly. "This is the mark of your ancestors. You cannot fight it. At the zenith of the star Sol, you will begin your journey. If you do not, you will hurt the ones that you love the most."

Clark's blood turned to ice in his veins. If the ship could do this to him when he was invulnerable to everything else, it could probably take over his mind and make him do whatever it wanted. He stared at the ship. That was so little time. He had to find a way to block Jor-El's influence over his mind. Come what may, he had to escape. There was no way that he'd hurt Mom and Dad, Pete and Chloe. The last thing he wanted was to hurt anyone. There had to be a way to block Jor-El and save everyone from the monster he was destined to be.

+++++

Clark hesitated for a moment longer before running from Jor-El. Once out of the storm cellar, he could still feel Jor-El's influence on him. It wasn't only the echo of Jor-El's words in his ears. The scar on his chest still burned. There wasn't any way to escape, no matter how far he ran. Jor-El would still be able to influence him.

'There's no other way,' Clark thought as he ran into Granville to a little curio shop that he'd made a point of avoiding for years.

The meteor rock jewelry in the front window glowed as Clark approached. The tiny chips weren't enough to send him to his knees but they still hurt. The pain blocked his powers to a degree, slowing Clark back to human speed. He braced himself before heading into the shop, going straight for the back counter were the meteor rock 'ruby' rings were kept. Once away from the front his powers returned, as did the burning of his new scar.

The red meteor rock jewelry in the back didn't glow as he approached. That was part of what had fooled him a year ago when he'd found a chunk of red meteor rock on their farm. It wasn't until he'd gotten into a shouting match with Dad and made Mom cry that he'd had any idea that there was anything different going on. He'd nearly run away that day but stripping off his jeans to put on a better pair had removed the meteor rock's influence. As soon as the red meteor rock was away from him he had returned to his normal self. Clark had been so horrified by his behavior he'd never worn those jeans again.

"Good evening," the clerk said. She looked a little surprised to see someone enter the store so close to closing. "Can I help you?"

"I need a ring," Clark said. "One with a big chunk of red meteor rock."

"We do have some nice men's rings," the woman said. "Did you have any style that you particularly like?"

"The bigger the rock, the better," Clark said. 

He didn't let himself wince at her little snort of amusement. She opened the lock on the back of the case pulling out four men's rings with large chunks of red meteor rock. Clark wasn't sure that this would work but he thought that it would. It should block Jor-El's influence on his mind. There was no way that he'd ever go home again anyway, not with the threat against his family and friends, so Clark didn't hesitate to pick the ring with the largest piece of meteor rock. It was as big as his thumbnail. He didn't feel anything until he took the ring out of its box and slid it up over his right ring finger. It fit perfectly.

The fire that had filled Clark for as long as he could remember surged to the front, shoving him to the background of his mind. Where the fire had been the not-so-quiet voice inside, now Clark was the voice within. Jor-El's influence faded, weakened by the rush of the red meteor rock. The burning of his scar faded away to almost nothing. All he felt was a faint itching sensation, combined with a sense of wellbeing that made him want to float.

"That's perfect," Kal said as he flexed his hand. "Exactly what I wanted."

"It's very nice," the clerk agreed. "Will this be on credit?"

"You think I'm paying for it?" Kal laughed at her. "Please!"

The way she gaped at him made Kal laugh even harder. She reached to push a silent alarm under the counter. Kal smashed the counter into kindling and shards of glass. He grinned again at her screams of terror before picking up the cash register and ripping it open to get at the cash. If he were starting a new life he'd need money.

"Thanks," Kal said, waving the cash at her.

"You're insane!" She screamed at him while cowering behind the wreckage of the counter.

"No, just not human," Kal replied. "Not human at all."

He went out the front door and looked around Granville's main street. There was nothing for him here anymore. Not in Smallville, not in Granville, not anywhere close to home. Kal ran, heading south to Metropolis. The big city was a good place to start setting up his new life, though he still wasn't sure what he was going to do long term. Not that long-term mattered anymore. All he wanted was to have some fun after years of being 'good'.

'We'll need a hideout,' Clark's voice whispered in the back of his mind. 'Someplace no one would ever look. Several hideouts. They'll track us down. We have to be prepared.'

"I don't need to hide from anyone!" Kal snarled at Clark's voice inside of him. "I'm never hiding again!"

'They're hunting us,' Clark whispered a little more urgently. 'It's not just Jor-El. The heroes are hunting us. We have to be prepared or they'll catch us and throw us in prison.'

That got through the rush of the red meteor rock and Kal's desire to party. He grumbled but nodded agreement. Metropolis was a nice city, without any heroes in it, so it made a good base of operations. He'd have to do things to get money elsewhere, like maybe Gotham or LA. Hell, no one would notice a freak like Kal in LA.

Kal did a quick circuit of the city to scout out potential locations and then headed south and west to LA for some quick cash. He broke into three automatic tellers at super speed, escaping without the dye packets touching him or a picture being taken. As he tucked the money away and headed back across the country he heard fast footsteps behind him.

'See?' Clark said with a slightly panicky whimper. 'I told you they were hunting us!'

Two teenage heroes, a boy and a girl in mirror image speedster outfits were following him. Kal snarled and kicked off of the ground, heading straight up into the air. Speedsters didn't fly. Problem solved, expect that it wasn't.

'The hell?' Kal thought as a blaze of green light came at him.

'Green Lantern!' Clark gasped. 'Duck!'

Kal ducked and found that he could fly at super speed too. The girl Lantern was about the same age as Kal, maybe a couple of years older. She had a bitch face that beat all bitch faces as she tried to keep up to Kal's flight. He zigged and zagged his way across the company, going up into the stratosphere and then diving back down to the ground. She stuck to his ass like she'd been glued to it, though the strain showed when he looked back at her. The speedsters were there within seconds once he approached the ground. This time, they were accompanied by the girl who'd taken over as Arsenal. And Robin.

Clark moaned something incoherent in the back of his head about Robin. It was a mixture of fear, awe and pure want that made Kal's spine stiffen. No one made him respond that way, not that Kal was really Clark. They weren't the same. They never had been. Clark-ish hesitation ruled Kal for a long moment as Robin looked up at him. His eyes were hidden behind the mirrored lenses of his cowl but Kal could see something like worry in the set of Robin's mouth.

"Fuck this shit," Kal snarled. He glared down at Robin and Arsenal, blasting them with his heat vision.

The girl Lantern dove between Kal and them, creating a glowing shield that blocked most of Kal's heat vision. He could see the grimace on her face. It wasn't easy for her. Kal grinned and upped the intensity of his heat vision, changing from a broad ray to a pinpoint one that drilled through to strike her in the shoulder. She fell out of the sky, her shield disappearing.

"No!" Robin shouted. "We don't want to fight you!"

The speedster twins caught the girl Lantern who appeared to be cursing under her breath in Spanish. Kal couldn't care less, despite Clark's horrified babbling in the back of his mind. Arsenal had one of her trick arrows targeted on Kal, not that it would do her any damned good.

"If you don't want a fight then quit following me around!" Kal shouted back at him. "Leave me the fuck alone. I have enough problems without you twits causing me grief."

He turned to fly away, but snapped his head back around as Robin threw some sort of tracking device at him. Kal burned it out of the air and then fried Arsenal's arrow for good measure. It blew up in her face, setting off a cloud of tear gas that enveloped her.

"Won't work on me, sweetie," Kal called down to her. "Too bad it works really well on you."

He flew off before the girl Lantern could get her concentration back. No matter how much he wanted to go party, obviously Clark was right. He did need a good hide out and maybe some allies to keep the teen heroes off of his ass. Hopefully if they were trying to deal with Kal then the older heroes would leave him alone. The last thing Kal wanted was someone like Wonder Woman raining on his parade before he'd even gotten going.

'Someplace empty,' Clark said nervously, 'someplace no one ever goes. And big, so there's lots of ways to escape.'

'I think I know the perfect place,' Kal said. 

He smirked. It wasn't ideal because he'd have to hide while there, but as a secret hideout it couldn't be beat. Once he'd made sure that he could always get into it, then he'd set about creating more obvious hideouts. Metropolis would be good. Gotham. Maybe down in Mexico City. Nobody there would give him too much shit, though neither Kal nor Clark spoke Spanish. Still, they'd figure it out between the two of them.

It wasn't like they had anywhere else they could go or anyone that they could trust.

+++++

"That sucked!" Jai shouted once they were back at Luthor Tower in Metropolis.

Despite his obvious rage he was tenderly holding a specially treated rag to Lian's eyes to help her stop crying from the tear gas. She was still coughing it out of her lungs. The way she leaned against Jai made their relationship very clear, not that Lex had had any doubt about it after spending ten minutes alone with them.

"I didn't expect him to be so fast," Iris complained as she helped bandage Milagro's shoulder.

"That…" Milagro gasped as the bandage settled over her burn. The pain didn't dim her glare at all. "That was nearly beyond my ability to keep up. I don't think I could hold him if I did catch him with my ring. And obviously my shields aren't good enough."

"No," Lex sighed, "it's not that he's too strong and fast. It's that we weren't prepared and we don't know how to work together very well yet. Milagro, could you have made your shield mirrored? Would the beams have bounced off?"

Milagro opened her mouth to snap an automatic reply but she paused, considering it. After a long moment she nodded. Lex let out a little breath he didn't allow to become a sigh of relief. Knowing that she had a way of blocking those heat rays was a huge help.

"So he's got your speed," Lex said to Iris and Jai. They nodded, looking grim. "Do you think you could outrun him if we managed to ground him?"

"Yeah," Iris said with complete confidence. "I know I can. I don't think Jai could but I know I can do it. It would just, well, the price might be a little higher than I want to pay."

"She might have to go into the Speed Force," Jai explained grimly, "and that might age her dramatically. Maybe kill her."

"We'll definitely avoid that," Lex said with a shudder that made him feel like his suit was going to come off. "I'd like to get an accurate idea of his speed if possible."

Lian tugged at Jai's arm, making him drop the rag. Her face was red and her eyes bloodshot but her expression was all business as she looked at Lex. Worry made Jai pull her closer for a moment, until Lian patted his leg in a highly intimate gesture that made Lex wonder where they had the time for making out.

"We have to be really careful, Lex," Lian declared. "None of my weapons will work on him if he's as invulnerable as he implied. We still don't know what he wants and we don't have enough power to hold him until we find out."

"I know," Lex agreed. "I've already asked Batman to contact Wonder Woman. We should have a Themyscirian to help us sometime soon. In the meantime we need to figure out where he's based so that we can keep an eye on him. Discretely."

"I'd like to know how we got this place," Milagro snapped. Despite her tone of voice she smiled gratefully at Iris as she finished the bandage.

"I already owned it," Lex said with a little shrug. "Well, my father's company owned it. The top ten floors have been empty for years. I just took them over. They're remodeling the lower levels to create housing for all of us and a training area like the one Oliver has. It's… sort of my contribution to setting things up."

Lian's lips twitched into a little grin. From what Lex could see Iris and Jai accepted his words. Milagro looked completely skeptical, especially as Lian started laughing. The laughs set off a coughing fit that had Iris and Jai both trying to comfort her.

"What?" Milagro demanded.

"All right, so I got sick of Oliver and Bruce arguing about where to put us," Lex admitted. He groaned at the way Lian's coughs increased as she kept laughing through them. "They were in a pissing match about who could supply us better and I already owned this place so I just went ahead and did it. Damian's agreed to supervise us and help set up training for us. Dick's probably going to stop by frequently and Roy's already made it clear that he's on call if we need him."

"I wondered," Lian gasped, grinning despite the way her eyes were streaming. Her voice sounded rough from the tear gas and coughing. "Ollie used swear words I hadn't heard before when he found out about this place."

"So did Tim," Lex said with not a little bit of pride. "Either way, this place is ours now."

"Hopefully it'll be a good spot to work from," Jai said. "As fast as Iris and I are, we can't be everywhere."

"Yeah, we need to know where he's based," Milagro agreed.

"I'll contact the other heroes and see if they can keep an eye out for him," Lex said. "Between all of us we should be able to figure it out fairly quickly. We just have to be careful so that he doesn't realize that we're tracking him. I don't want to have any more confrontations like this if we can help it."

The others nodded agreement with Lex's words. Their first outing as a team certainly hadn't gone the way that Lex wanted but they'd get better at it. He'd make sure that they got the training they needed to be a true team. Hopefully with the addition of a Themyscirian they'd have the power they needed to get their Meta to stand still and talk. If not, at least they should have enough power to be able to arrest him.

+++++

"So when will they get here?" Jai asked. He was standing by the window and looking out at the sky as if he would be able to see Wonder Woman when she arrived.

"No idea," Lex said for the dozenth time. "Shouldn't you be training with Lian?"

"Nah, the girls are training together," Jai said. "It's one of those girl bonding things, I think."

"I'm not budging," Cerdian said with a cocky little grin. "You really don't think we're leaving do you?"

Lex snorted with amusement. Both of them were looking forward to seeing Diana in person and to meeting the new Themyscirian. Where they were excited, Lex was so nervous that his stomach was roiling. He'd met Diana often enough to know the difference between how she behaved in public and how she behaved in private. In public the weight of her eons of experience tended to be hidden from view. Once she was in private Diana didn't bother to hide that she was several thousand years old and more experienced than any ordinary human ever could be.

She also didn't hide her amusement at men's reactions to her.

They all started as Hope tapped on the door and then led Diana in. She was dressed in street clothes and was accompanied by a young woman who seemed almost as awed by Diana as Lex was. Jai and Cerdian both stood up straight, responding automatically to Diana's formidable presence. Their eyes went wide, their pants tented out and then they blushed brilliantly while trying to discretely hide their arousal.

"Alexander," Diana said, coming over to give him a gentle hug. "You appear to be doing well."

"Thank you," Lex said. He smiled at her despite the spike of nervous nausea. "May I introduce Jai West and Cerdian? They're members of the team."

"I'm honored to make your acquaintance," Diana said with a regal nod that was perfectly appropriate to her royal blood. "Allow me to introduce Myrina. She has agreed to join your team and live in the Man's World for a time."

"Honored to meet you," Myrina said with a little nod at them all.

Where Diana had long black hair pulled into a strict bun, Myrina's hair hung in shoulder length brown curls. Her skin was tanned from time spent in the sun and her eyes nearly matched the color of her hair. Lex would have bet serious money that she was under two hundred years old from the way she gazed at Diana with awe. It appeared to him that they had chosen someone who qualified as a teen for the Themyscirians, which surprised him.

"I hope that you will give Myrina guidance on living here," Diana said with a warning look in her eyes for the others. "She is quite young for an Amazon and has little experience at the modern world."

"We'll do our best to make sure that she's comfortable and well grounded," Lex replied. "Why don't we head down to the training area? The girls are working through a training exercise right now."

"Please," Diana said. 

Her grin looked intrigued. Myrina looked relieved that she wasn't going to be dropped into a team composed entirely of men. Lex explained their facility as they headed downstairs, pointing out the living quarters, kitchen, offices and medical center that they were just completing. Both Diana and Myrina perked up once they entered the observation room.

Lex had ensured that the training room's course was changeable, which would keep them from getting complacent. He'd also made sure, sheerly from Bat pride, that it was a good bit larger and more complex than Oliver's center. Damian had thrown in a whole series of traps. Dick had set up zip lines and places to practice tumbling and acrobatics. Jason had insisted on a separate area for hand-to-hand training. And of course Bruce and Tim had installed monitors and computers that would evaluate everyone's performance and make recommendations for improvement.

"I hope that your training area is sturdy enough," Diana said once Lex was done explaining the setup.

"I doubt it," Lex admitted. "I don't think that there are any man-made materials that will stand up to your strength. Of course, that's part of why we needed you, Myrina. The meta I told Diana about appears to be at your level of strength or greater."

Myrina and Diana exchanged startled looks. Lex could understand their shock. Themyscirians were the strongest people known. For someone else to show up out of the blue with potentially greater strength was surprising, to say the least. When Diana turned back to Lex she was every inch Wonder Woman, despite her fake glasses and street clothes.

"You will keep me informed on this meta," Wonder Woman declared.

"Of course," Lex said as calmly as he could when she was glaring at him that way. "Batman and Bruce are helping track his activities, as are the speedsters and the Green Lanterns. So far he doesn't seem that dangerous."

"All he wants to do is party," Jai commented and then winced as Diana's attention shifted over to him. "Seriously, he steals money and immediately goes and blows it on food, drink and drugs that don't seem to affect him."

"Lots of raves," Cerdian piped up, "lots of making out."

"He only gets violent when people confront him or try to cut him off from what he wants that moment," Lex said. "We're fairly certain he's based in Metropolis."

Diana nodded slowly and crossed her arms on her chest. She appeared to take their meta a great deal more seriously than the other senior heroes were. Lex wasn't sure if that was because of her being female or if it was because of his abilities being a challenge to the Themyscirian superiority. Myrina jumped when Diana turned to her.

"You will keep an eye on this one," Diana said in ancient Greek to Myrina. Lex didn't think that she knew that he'd learned it.

"Yes your Highness," Myrina replied. She bowed formally.

"Let me know if you need anything," Diana said to Lex in English. "I believe I shall consult with Bruce and Oliver about this meta of yours."

"Please let me know if you come up with anything new," Lex said. "As it stands we're discussing an undercover operation to get close to him and I'd really rather avoid having to dress up as a girl."

Diana burst out laughing. She reached over and patted the top of Lex's head in a maternal gesture that made him flush bright red. Cerdian quivered beside Lex, his eyes wide and locked onto Diana's chest. Lex was rather grateful that Jai was behind him so that he didn't have to see Jai's response.

"But you make such a fine strong young woman, Alexander," Diana teased. "Were you a woman you would nearly be strong enough to be an honorary Themyscirian. Call if you need anything, Myrina."

"Yes Highness," Myrina said.

They stayed frozen in their spots as Diana swept out. Myrina sighed, rubbing the bracelets on her wrists once the door shut. When she turned back to Lex, Jai and Cerdian, she seemed far younger, far more nervous and much more approachable.

"She intimidates you too," Lex commented.

"Very much so, I am afraid," Myrina said. "I am only one hundred and thirteen years old. By my people's standards I am younger than any of you. Diana is a legend among my people as much as she is amongst yours. So, may I meet the others now?"

"Sure!" Cerdian said. He immediately stepped to her side and grinned up at her as engagingly as he could. "They should be done by now. I can show you around, if you want."

Lex bit down on the urge to laugh at Cerdian's enthusiasm. Myrina seemed to find him cute in an abstract sort of way because she allowed Cerdian to lead her away. Jai followed, talking over both of them about how close he and Lian were and how they'd known each other for years. He seemed to have an uncanny instinct for people who might be attracted to Lian.

"Oh well," Lex sighed as he slowly followed them. "Another personality to integrate into the team. Here's hoping I won't need that damned skirt."

+++++

'You know, this is actually kind of boring,' Clark commented.

Kal didn't growl though he was seriously tempted to. A sweet young thing dancing in front of him, grinding her tits into Kal's chest and a fucking hot guy grinding into his backside was anything but boring. Clark seemed to pick up on his annoyance because he laughed quietly in Kal's mind.

'No, really,' Clark said far too thoughtfully for the action going on. 'We go out, we steal some money, we go to a party, try and get laid or drunk or stoned. Generally fail on the latter two. Then we get annoyed and storm off and sleep and do it all over again. It's kind of monotonous.'

'And taking care of the cows wasn't?' Kal asked.

'Oh sure, but everyone admitted that was boring,' Clark said with a mental shrug that didn't translate into a physical one. 'I guess I didn't expect that partying could be repetitive.'

Kal had to admit that Clark was right about the monotony. Metropolis had some good raves, some great clubs, but it all blurred together after a week or two. After a month and a half, Kal was getting nearly as bored as Clark was with the same old thing. The fights with the damned Teen Titans were entertaining but they'd backed off after the last battle that had resulted in Robin getting hurt so Kal didn't have that anymore.

'Oh wow…' Clark breathed.

It took a second for Kal to register the couple that had caught Clark's attention. They were a seriously fucking hot lesbian pair that had just walked into the rave. The butch was tall and muscular with brown curly hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked like she was ready to pound the fuck out anyone who dared to touch her girl.

Of course it was the girl that had caught both Clark and Kal's attention. She was tall for a girl and muscular with slim hips and broad shoulders. Her blue eyes scanned the crowd as if she was looking for something while she licked her lips. There was a little scar on her upper lip that looked like someone had split it open once upon a time. Little bitty tits peeked out from under a pale blue dress that skimmed all the right places and hugged exactly where it should.

"Damn," Kal breathed while pushing the couple he'd been dancing with away. "Man, I'd hit that. I'd hit it, back up and do it again."

"Hey!" the girl he'd been with protested.

"Push off," Kal snarled at her and her guy. "Found something more interesting than you two."

They both glared at him but when his eyes flashed red they found somewhere else to be really damned quick. By the time Kal had gotten rid of them the lesbian couple was moving out onto the dance floor. The butch looked like she didn't want to dance at all but her girl was dragging her out with a grin that made her whole face light up.

"I can dance with her if you want to sit this one out," Kal offered so boldly that Clark groaned in the back of his mind. The music was just barely quiet enough off of the dance floor to allow his words to be heard.

"That is not necessary," the butch growled at him.

They stood nearly the same height. Kal was only an inch or so taller than she was. He got the feeling that she'd gladly bash the living hell out of him if she could. She wore the fake Amazon gauntlets that were so popular with butch lesbians. They didn't intimidate him. A fake Amazon would only hurt her hands punching him. A real one would be a ton of fun and would improve his night dramatically.

"Come on, Rina," the girl huffed. "I want to dance. Either come on or I'll dance with whoever I want."

"That…"

"Girls got a right to have fun," Kal said. "Don't be such a party pooper."

Rina and her girl exchanged fierce looks and then the girl grabbed Kal's hand to pull him out onto the dance floor with a fling of her hair that all but shouted 'so there!' Kal grinned and let her do it. He thought there would probably be a fight later because of it. That was fine by him. A good brawl would break his boredom.

"Dance with me," the girl mouthed at Kal over the pounding beat of the music. 

She pushed up against Kal, wrapping her arms around him. They danced. It was more like vertical sex than dancing, which was fine as far as Kal was concerned. He kept an eye on Rina. While he knew that she couldn't hurt him, Clark fretted in the back of his mind about upsetting the girl. Clark was always a soft touch when it came to cute girls.

"She's not happy with you," the girl sang to Kal.

"She's not very happy with you, either," Kal laughed into her ear. "What's your name?"

"Lexi!" she said, grinning. It was one of the wildest, most wicked grins he'd ever seen on a girl's face.

The song changed to something slower that was tailor made for grinding together. Lexi spun around and pressed back against Kal's crotch, gyrating in time with the music. Kal felt a groan that was purely Clarkish. He couldn't keep it from welling up.

'She's beautiful,' Clark moaned.

'Fucking sexy,' Kal agreed.

Lexi caught Kal's hands and encouraged him to run his hands over her slim hips to her waist. She had a little waist cincher on under the dress though Kal didn't think that she needed it. The thought of it and the garters he felt that descended downwards from it made Kal groan. He mentally stripped Lexi, shivering at the way she laughed at his growing erection.

'That's…' Clark whimpered in the back of Kal's mind.

"Fucking sexy," Kal growled right in Lexi's ear.

She laughed and grinned over her shoulder at Kal like it was the best compliment she'd ever gotten. Her eyes were brilliant blue and wicked as can be. Kal felt kind of like he'd finally found the girl of his dreams. Sweet little Lana had nothing on Lexi. Clark nodded urgently in Kal's mind, his attention fully wrapped up in the way Lexi gyrated against them. He let one hand drift up to cup Lexi's little tit and the other drift down towards her crotch. She groaned, letting her head drop back against his shoulder.

"Enough," Rina shouted as she grabbed Kal's shoulder. "Let her go!"

The dance floor had emptied out the instant Rina stormed over to them. The music pounded on but the DJ had abandoned his post. In the space of thirty seconds the whole rave poured out the exits, leaving Rina, Lexi and Kal alone. Well, almost alone. Clark was there but they didn't know that. Lexi huffed at Rina, glaring at her girlfriend.

"You don't want to do this," Kal warned Rina. The music died as the system hit the end of that track and no one started the next. After the pounding music, the silence was deafening.

"I do want to," Rina said. She drew herself up just a little more to glare straight into Kal's eyes. "Let her go."

"And if I don't want to let go?" Kal asked, goading her with words and a confident smirk.

"I am _not_ some sort of prize for you two to fight over!" Lexi snapped.

She shoved Kal's hands away, bristling at Rina. "I was handling it. You don't need to protect me, Rina."

"I disagree," Rina said. Her eyes were still locked on Kal. "He is dangerous. He must be stopped."

Kal glared at her. He knew that his eyes flashed red. Rina didn't flinch. She raised her chin and rose up on her toes as if she was getting ready to attack. Lexi's whole carriage changed into something much more dominant and commanding. She grabbed Rina's arm, startling her into looking down at Lexi.

"Not now," Lexi snarled at her. "This isn't the time."

"I don't know," Kal said. "I think it's a great time for a brawl. I'm bored anyways."

Lexi threw a scathing look over her shoulder at Kal that was so harsh that it made Kal flinch like he was Clark. Before he could regain his composure Lexi pushed Rina towards the door. Kal opened his mouth to protest but suddenly found himself with a lithe armful of Lexi as she rose up on her toes to kiss him soundly. One of her hands slipped into Kal's front pocket.

"Call me later," Lexi whispered. "That was way too much fun."

"Lexi!" Rina gasped.

"Don't start with me," Lexi snapped at her. She grabbed Rina's hand and dragged her towards the door. "We're going to have a very long talk about this. I'm very, very, very unhappy with you right now."

"He's dangerous!" Rina protested as she was dragged out the door.

The look she threw over her shoulder promised that there would be a rematch if he dared to call Lexi. Kal fished the note that Lexi had put into his pocket out. All it said was 'call me' plus a number. Kal laughed, shaking his head. He certainly wasn't bored anymore. Horny as hell but not bored.

'Wow,' Clark whimpered to Kal.

"Definitely wow," Kal agreed. "We are so calling her. Oh well, might as well go see what else we can find tonight."

'How about some pie?' Clark asked completely seriously.

"Pie sounds great," Kal said, picturing a completely different sort than Clark's apple pie. He figured that Lexi had to have red hair down below too.

He laughed at Clark's mental blush and then sped away. Not what he'd expected this evening but at least he had a new number to call when he wanted some fun. There was no doubt in either his mind or Clark's that Lexi would be up for it when he did call.

+++++

"He is dangerous!" Myrina insisted.

She looked completely offended by Kal's actions. Lex wasn't sure if it was because of the groping or if it was just that she objected to Kal's attitude in general. He'd barely had time to get out of the outfit and into regular clothes before the others had come piling into his bedroom to discuss how the mission had gone. The only calm one seemed to be Lian, who watched them all with a distant, faintly amused expression.

"Of course he's dangerous," Lex snapped at Myrina. "That was the point of approaching him this way. We didn't want to cause a battle in the middle of a ton of people."

"He, he, he--!" She spluttered while gesturing towards Lex's crotch. Outrage made her seem a good five or six inches taller than normal.

"If you say he molested me I'll hit you," Lex snarled at her. "That was dancing. I had it under control."

"But he touched your, your…"

Myrina gestured towards her breasts with a grabby motion that had Iris giggling. Both Jai and Cerdian immediately got lock-on, which caused Myrina to glare, which then caused the guys to flinch and shift a little closer to each other in a display of male solidarity that was almost amusing if it weren't for how annoyed Lex was.

"Chest," Lex drawled in just the right way to recapture Myrina's attention. "I'm a male so I don't have breasts. Though if you want to get technical he touched a very high quality fake breast that I glued to my chest."

Cerdian and Jai went so red that Iris laughed outright at them. He wasn't about to tell the girls that both of them had played with the falsies a bit before Lex kicked them out to get ready. Milagro was smirking at Lex as if she thought he was some sort of perv for having the damned falsies. It wasn't Lex's fault that Tim had ensured that he had quite literally everything he could possibly need for any sort of operation. Still, Myrina was so angry about the whole thing that he couldn't help but think he was missing the point somewhere.

"Lex likes him, Rina," Lian said from her spot on the floor next to the balcony entrance. "It's not like this was something that he would have objected to under any circumstances."

"Oh come on, Lex isn't gay," Jai snorted.

"Thank you very much for your unnecessary support of my masculinity but I most certainly am interested in him," Lex said with a glare that made Jai go red and then very pale. "You know perfectly well that I'm bi, Jai. I've never hid that."

"Yeah but…" 

Jai trailed off as if he was trying to figure out what to say next that wouldn't get him punched in the nose. Given that he'd tried to introduce Lex to stereotypically effeminate guys many times since the team got together socially, he probably would be punched. Lex had yet to get through to Jai that he didn't want a girl with male anatomy. He wanted a guy, thank you very much.

"Don't start spouting stereotypes at me." Lex rolled his eyes and turned back to Myrina who was watching their discussion with a baffled expression. "I do like him. Under different circumstances I would have been perfectly happy to actually have sex with him."

"You're a child!" Myrina squawked.

"So is he," Lex snapped at her. "And I'll have you know that I'm legal in this state. If I wish to have sex I'm perfectly free to do so. Not so sure about Kal as he seems a little younger than me sometimes and older at others but that's irrelevant. What we did was part of the operation. You knew going in there that I'd try and seduce him. That was the point. The whole reason you came along was to keep him from hurting me and he most certainly was not hurting me."

"But you had run out of time," Lian commented.

Lex turned and stared at her. He ran back through his memories of the rave, counting the length of the songs and how long they'd danced. Unless he was misremembering things she was right, which was more than a little embarrassing given the yelling he'd been doing. Lian smirked at him, setting her elbows on her knees.

"Huh, I didn't think it was that long," Lex said finally. "We really danced through four songs?"

"Yup," Lian said with a grin that was pure amusement at his sake.

"Oh." Lex blinked at Myrina, looked at the others who either rolled their eyes (Milagro), shrugged (the guys), or outright giggled at him (Iris). "Well. I'm sorry for snapping at you for acting too soon then."

"That does not change the fact that he is very dangerous and must be stopped!" Myrina said as if they were all missing a very important point.

Lian laughed under her breath and shook her head. Lex started to yell at Myrina but Lian waved her hands at them, signaling a Time Out. Neither of Lex nor Myrina liked it, especially Myrina from the thunderous expression on her face, but they both shut up. The Time Out rule was the first one they'd implemented and everyone honored it. Mostly.

"Look, I was watching the cameras," Lian said far to reasonably for the argument they'd been having, "and I really think there's a great deal more to Kal than we thought there was. He was talking to someone who wasn't there, having a real conversation with them."

"So he's nuts?" Jai asked.

"No, I didn't get that feeling," Lex said, considering it. "Bear in mind that I've fought most of Gotham's real crazies, including the Joker, so I do know crazy when I encounter it. Kal was bored and has a very short attention span coupled with far too much power but he's not crazy."

Lian nodded agreement. She went to Lex's laptop and called up the footage that they'd shot, isolating the time just after Lex and Myrina had left together. Everyone came over and watched it, even Myrina. Her grumpy expression rapidly faded to confusion in the face of Kal's one-sided discussion with himself.

"Dude, he's talking to an imaginary friend," Jai complained with a little shudder.

"Maybe he had some sort of secure communication device?" Milagro suggested.

"We," Lex said. "He doesn't say 'I'm so going to call her'. He says 'we'."

"Perhaps he is possessed," Myrina said in a much more reasonable tone of voice. "Perhaps there is more than one person inside of his body. Such things can happen, you know."

Lex nodded thoughtfully as the others threw ideas back and forth. They really needed to get more information on Kal. The more they knew the more likely it was that they'd be able to stop his rampages and turn him into an ally. No matter how Myrina felt about Kal's abilities, Lex couldn't believe that he was truly dangerous. Someone that dedicated to partying wasn't a credible threat to the world, at least in Lex's mind. 

They all started when Lex's phone rang. He snatched it up and plugged it into his computer to record their conversation before opening it. Lian hushed everyone, all but stuffing a pillow in Iris' mouth to keep her from squealing when Lex answered. It was an unknown number and the only person who could have been was Kal.

"Hello?" Lex was careful to pitch his voice in Lexi's range.

"Hey sexy," Kal said in that same cocky tone of voice that he'd had at the rave. "You free now?"

"Um, no, not exactly," Lex said. He settled into the desk chair and flapped a hand at Myrina who was bristling at him.

"Great, she's standing right there, isn't she?" Kal sighed.

"Yeah, afraid so," Lex said a forcedly cheerful tone of voice.

Kal growled into his phone. Lian was running a tracking program to try and figure out where Kal could be. There weren't any sounds of music or traffic, so it was either somewhere well soundproofed or Kal wasn't in any of his normal haunts.

"Fuck," Kal grumbled. "I knew we were calling too soon. We should have waited a little bit."

"Mmmm, probably," Lex said. "You got a friend there or something?"

"Huh?" Kal asked. He sounded really surprised and then totally chagrined. "No, no, nothing like that. Figure of speech, that's all."

"We are not amused, huh?" Lex laughed in Lexi's bright, cheerful way. "What, you're royalty?"

"Fuck, I wish," Kal said. He sounded wistful about it, not amused at all. "Might be better than… Hell, I should let you go. Don't want you to get in trouble."

"We can talk more if you want," Lex said as if he'd snuck a little ways away. "She's kind of busy right now."

"Where are you?" Kal asked. He sounded concerned, which was odd coming from a party boy like him.

"At a friend's place," Lex said just quietly enough that the others craned their necks to listen in. "She was ranting for a while but the others are calming her down. It's okay. I'm fine."

"That fucking butch better not have hurt you!" Kal snapped so angrily that Lex cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "She ever hurts you and I'll pound her into the ground. You call me, you got it?"

"Thank you," Lex said. His voice came out honestly touched, which made Myrina's jaw drop and Iris squeal into her pillow. Milagro rolled her eyes again as if surprised that Lex could sink any lower. "It's okay, really. She'd never hurt me. She follows the Themyscirian ways."

"Yeah right," Kal snorted. "Like she has any clue what they really are."

Lex laughed at that, giving Lian a thumbs up when she located the cell tower closest to Kal. Oddly it was up in Smallville. Or perhaps not so oddly given how powerful Kal was. He could be one of the town's many meteor mutants, just like Lex. The thought that they might share that link made Lex's heart beat faster. There was an odd sound from Kal's side. Lex couldn't make out what it was. From Lian's expression she had no clue either.

"Damn, I gotta go," Kal said. "Can I call you later?"

"Any time," Lex said and meant it. "Anytime you need to talk, you call me. If you don't get me, leave a message and I'll call you back. I'm adding you, okay?"

"Sure," Kal said in a voice that was completely unlike his normal confident tones. He sounded sweet, kind and gentle. It was as though he was a completely different person. "I'd really like that, Lexi. Thank you!"

"You're welcome." Lex didn't get to say anything else because Kal hung up on him.

The whole conversation ran back through Lex's head as Lian made sure that it had been recorded. It was odd how instantly protective Kal had become. Certainly, they'd had reports of him defending people from trouble but they'd had just as many reports of him causing trouble. Lex made a mental note to dig deeper into the records. Maybe his actions had been misinterpreted.

"I think he is possessed or something very similar to it," Cerdian said. "That last bit sounded like a totally different person. Different tone of voice, different intonation, different everything. You might be right, Rina."

"He is still dangerous," Myrina complained in a much less hostile tone of voice. "He might not be as bad as I thought but he's still very dangerous. I find it odd that one such as he would immediately leap to your defense though."

"That was strange," Milagro agreed. "And the way he was so grateful that Lex would want to add his number. I know he's a loner but that makes it sound like he's never had a friend in his life."

"Smallville," Lian said thoughtfully. "What in the world is in Smallville? Why would he go there?"

"I have no idea," Lex said as he unhooked his phone and saved Kal's number on his contacts list. "But at least now we have a better idea of where to find him. It's a start. And now we have a channel of communication with him. That's a lot more than we had yesterday."

+++++

Kal shut the phone and stared at it while Clark enthused in the back of his mind about finally meeting someone friendly. It wouldn't come to anything. They both knew it but Kal let Clark have his moment of glee. As much as Kal wanted to fuck Lexi silly, Clark wanted to be her friend and possibly more. He snorted and carefully moved to the door of the room he was currently hiding in.

The old Luthor manor in Smallville was huge, empty and perfect as far as Kal was concerned. No one ever came here, not with old Lionel in prison and his son a part of the Wayne family. As far as Kal knew none of the Luthors had ever come here. But it was fully furnished, heated and the family that kept the place up was superstitious enough to believe that the place was haunted.

"I'm telling you, there was a light on up here," Jeff Palmer said as he headed down the hallway to Clark's room.

"You know the lights come on by themselves," his sister Amy sighed as she followed him. "I don't know why you keep trying to track this down."

"It never used to be this bad," Jeff said. "The last couple of months the 'ghost' sightings have gotten worse."

"You can't really believe someone's hiding out in here," Amy groaned. "Jeff, come on. We'd have seen someone coming and going. There'd be proof. Food or toilets used or something."

Kal waited for Jeff to fling the door open and then super sped past him and Amy and down the hallway. They both gasped at the gust of wind but he was too fast for them to have seen anything. It amused him that Jeff had it right but everyone else thought he was wrong. Kal sped out of the house, avoiding all of the motion detectors that Jeff had hidden around the place with ease. 

It wasn't as though Kal used the manor all the time. Just sometimes, when Clark really wanted to see home and hear their parent's voices. Kal didn't stay long whenever he did go back to Smallville. Being in Smallville felt like he was way too close to Jor-El and his crazy demands. Of course, distance made no difference when Jor-El tried to force Kal to obey him. There was a regular schedule to the demands so Kal had eventually agreed with Clark to just go somewhere distant to endure them so that no one would see or hear them.

Today they chose one of the cornfields between Smallville and Metropolis. It was dark and quiet in the field. They could hear bugs singing to each other and the faint sound of wind through the stalks of corn but nothing else within miles. Kal scanned the area and nodded. No one anywhere close. The nearest farmhouse was a good three miles off, which was just about perfect as far as he was concerned.

'I wish he'd leave us alone,' Clark sighed as Kal pulled his shirt off and set it aside.

"No shit," Kal said. "The jerk knows that we won't do what he wants. He oughta just give up and let us live our lives."

'I suppose computer programs don't have the flexibility to do that,' Clark said.

"And he doesn't get bored," Kal agreed.

He reluctantly took off the red meteor rock ring as the time approached. Over the last couple of months they'd realized that while the ring blocked Jor-El's mental demands, it couldn't resist when Jor-El really pushed it. Clark had a theory that the reason Jor-El only did his thing once a day was that burning through the combined resistance of the ring and their determination not to submit took so much power that he had to recharge during the rest of the day.

They both winced as the brand on their chest started to itch. The itching quickly became burning that had Clark panting. By the time the burn had his chest blazing like a searchlight the difference between Kal and Clark had disappeared in a wave of pain that consumed everything else. There was no Kal or Clark left when Jor-El shouted his demand for them to submit.

"No!" Clark/Kal groaned.

They scrambled in the dirt and found the ring that protected them from Jor-El. Their hands were shaking so badly that they dropped the ring twice before finally managing to put it onto his finger. Kal's personality surged to the front and the rush from the red meteor rock pushed Jor-El out of their minds. It took a long time before Kal could lever himself back up to his feet.

'I really hate him,' Clark whimpered in the back of Kal's mind. 'I hate this. I can't do anything anymore because the instant we take the ring off Jor-El tries to force us to do his stupid bidding.'

"No shit," Kal panted. He brushed off the dirt and then very carefully pulled their shirt back on. "I'm not too upset about it since I finally get to do things but this seriously sucks ass. Goddamn pain in the ass father…"

'…I miss Dad,' Clark said so quietly that Kal barely heard him.

"And Mom, I know," Kal said. "I do too. They might have been a little nuts on the secrecy thing but they did love us. Well, you anyway. They never did seem very comfortable with me."

'You're part of me,' Clark protested. 'You're just as much me as I am.'

Kal laughed, grinning up at the stars over their head. Clark grumbled for a second before laughing a little sheepishly. It didn't make a hell of a lot of sense unless you were inside of their head. They were the same person but Clark was the conscious part and Kal was all of the wants and needs given voice. 

Both of them were growing from swapping places. Kal had started, very slowly, to learn how think ahead and not make impulsive mistakes. Clark on the other hand was learning how to cut loose and enjoy himself instead of being so uptight and worried all the time. A sigh snaked its way out of their chest.

Without any discussion they ran into Smallville. Mom and Dad were in the living room together. When Kal used his X-ray vision he saw that they were methodically but hopelessly putting together 'have you seen this boy' posters. Mom's belly was clearly visible. Clark's little sister had grown a bit since the last time they'd checked on them. She waved an arm as if she knew Kal was looking at her. Kal waved back and carefully tucked a couple of hundred dollar bills into the front seat of the truck. He couldn't give them too much money because it would attract attention but both Clark and Kal agreed that they had to give at least a little.

Lana was out on a date with her latest guy when Kal ran through town towards Chloe's house. He blasted past them without pausing to look. No matter how much Lana had consumed Clark's attention she was boring as hell to Kal. Besides, when compared to Lexi, Lana was a dud. Clark's little sigh was as good as an admission that he agreed. Normally he demanded that Kal backtrack. Today he didn't bother, which said more than words ever could.

Chloe was searching on the Internet. Kal grinned when he realized that she was looking for them. Granted, she didn't know that it was them since no one had any good images of them yet, but all of the searches on her computer were on things that they'd done. It made Clark a little nervous for her safety but Kal didn't worry about it. Chloe was stuck in Smallville. What damage was she going to do out here in the middle of nowhere?

Pete was playing video games with his little brothers. It looked to Kal like he'd pretty much forgotten about Clark. Every single time they'd been buy Pete had been going about his life as if Clark had never been there. That hurt nearly as bad as the brand did but what could they do? Contacting anyone in town would be stupid as hell and Pete deserved a good life.

'We can't go back,' Clark said in his quietest voice ever.

'What?' Kal asked as he ran back to Metropolis and their latest loft apartment. 'You mean if we ever get that asshole Jor-El off of our back?'

'Yeah,' Clark sighed. 'I don't think I could go back to hiding, Kal. I don't like being trapped inside of us but even if I could come out again I don't think that I could live in Smallville anymore. It's too claustrophobic there. Everywhere we went and everything we did was always dangerous. We couldn't breathe for fear of being caught. I… don't think I can live that way anymore.'

"It's about damned time you figured that out," Kal said with a roll of their eyes. "God, I knew that as soon as you put on the ring the first time. We don't have to live that way. Sure, we have to hide a little but we don't have to be in terror all the Goddamned time. I won't live that way anymore, not for you, not for Mom and Dad, not for anyone."

'We're free,' Clark agreed.

"Mostly," Kal sighed as he rubbed the brand on their chest. "Not all the way but we are mostly free. And someday we'll figure out how to be truly free. No clue what we'll do then."

'Help people,' Clark said with a mental grin because he knew it would make Kal groan.

"Will you please think of yourself from time to time?" Kal groaned.

Clark laughed and pretty soon Kal was laughing with him. They might still be stuck between a rock and a hard place but things weren't all that bad. Jor-El hadn't broken them yet. Despite being hunted, they were still free. And they might just have a friend if Lexi turned out to be as nice and wild as she seemed. All in all, Kal thought it had been a pretty good night.

"Now where's the pie?" Kal murmured as he rummaged through the fridge.

+++++

"So why are we in Gotham?" Jai asked as Lian led him through Wayne Manor by the wiggle of her ass.

"You really don't listen to more than one word in twenty Lex says, do you?" Lian asked. She sounded amused and laugher was dancing in her eyes as she looked over her shoulder at him.

"Nope," Jai said in his best completely unrepentant tone of voice. "Boss man might be a Robin but that doesn't mean his word is god."

"Nope, just my word," Lian laughed.

She grinned at his blush. They'd been dating for long enough that Jai didn't bother denying it. Granted, she was right but it didn't look good for a guy to admit that he followed his girl around that way. Lian grabbed Jai's hand, anchoring him against the urge to run away from his embarrassment. She seemed to have some sort of instinctive awareness of when he was getting uncomfortable. Better than that, she always knew how to calm him down again.

"So where are we going?" Jai asked.

"You'll see," Lian said with just the right air of mystery to keep him intrigued during the long, long, long walk at human speed from one end of the Manor to the other. "I guarantee that you'll love it."

"You're here," Jai said as he squeezed her fingers. "I know I'll love it."

Lian blushed at him, looking totally flattered. Jai made a mental note to thank Iris for that bit of advice. What with Cerdian and Lex and Myrina around Jai couldn't help but be worried that Lian would look somewhere else. He might not admit it most of the time but he knew that he was a challenge to be around what with the short attention span thing.

"Here we are," Lian said. 

She released his hand and laughed when he whined and made grabby hands at her. As soon as she opened the door all thoughts of grabbing her disappeared. Lian laughed even harder at the noise Jai made. He couldn't have stopped it if he tried.

"Game room!" Jai shouted once he'd found his voice again.

He sped around the room, checking out every single game and then rushing back to Lian's side to grab her and hug her tight.

"Game room, Li!" Jai said in a voice that absolutely was not a squeal no matter what Iris would claim.

"Thought you'd like it," Lian said. She giggled like they were little kids again and looked almost as excited at Jai was. "Want to play our way around the room a few times? There's no need for quarters or anything."

"You are the coolest girlfriend ever," Jai whispered.

He pulled her into his arms for a kiss that felt about three decades long to him. It must have been acceptably long for Lian too because she was blushing and short of breath once he finally let her go. They exchanged face-splitting grins and started arguing about which game to play first. They were grinning too hard for the argument to be anything other than flirting, which was all good as far as Jai was concerned. Maybe Lian meant it when she said that it didn't matter whom else was around, he was her focus. Jai really hoped that it was true.

+++++

"I thought that you'd like to meet some of my other friends," Lex said. "Kyle will stare at your chest and flirt but he's harmless. The one I thought that you'd like to meet is Sara. She's been studying the Themyscirian ways for a few years now."

"Is this normal?" Myrina asked as they headed into one of the huge conglomerations of stores that Diana had called 'a Mall' and then explained the proper spelling of. 

'Mall' didn't seem very different from 'maul' to Myrina once they were inside. People young and old scurried about between the many smaller stores, most looking quite harried and upset. Few looked as though they were enjoying their time in the shopping complex. The addition of prominently uniformed and armed security guards added to Myrina's tension as they made their way past a food court selling wares that looked unhealthful in the extreme and towards what appeared to be a bookstore.

"Hmm?" Lex looked confused by the question, which answered it by default. "This is actually rather quiet today. Why?"

"It does not matter," Myrina sighed. "Where are we to meet your friends?"

"Just up ahead at the bookstore," Lex said. "I'll probably have to leave you with Sara for a while. There's someone I'm supposed to meet and seeing you with me would scare him off."

"All right," Myrina said.

She didn't look forward to attempting to make small talk in a language she was only just mastering but if it were for the mission then she would do it. Lex spotted someone and excused himself nearly immediately after making the introductions. Lex's friend Kyle was as male as he could possibly be. Myrina didn't think that his eyes once rose from her breasts after they were introduced. His friend Sara was an entirely different matter.

"I'm pleased to meet you," Sara said in awkward Themyscirian with an expression that radiated sincerity.

"You speak our language quite well," Myrina said slowly and carefully so that Sara would understand her. "How long have you studied it?"

Sara beamed up at Myrina though there was a hint of uncertainty in her eyes, as if she thought Myrina was praising her for too little. Her cheeks went from creamy to blushing so rosily that they nearly matched her pixie-short hair. Myrina nodded absently as Kyle muttered something about 'games' and 'later'. She didn't even notice his departure a few moments later.

"Not for too long," Sara said. "It is rather different than I expected and hard to learn. For me."

"I find English as hard," Myrina admitted in English to spare Sara more fumbling with words. "I only started learning it two years ago and wish I had studied for far longer. I did not expect to come to the Man's world."

"Please don't call us that," Sara said with a frown that made Myrina rock back on her heels in surprise. "I'm sorry, but it's very insulting. I know that it must seem to be only men's world to you but you're dismissing half of the population of the planet when you say that. Women are here. We have always been here. We always will be here. Men wouldn't accomplish half of what they do if it weren't for the contributions of the women around them."

Myrina's surprise and consternation must have shown because Sara ducked her head for a moment and then smiled wryly at Myrina.

"Sorry," Sara said in a dove-soft voice, "but it really bugs me when people do that. It's not like this world belongs only to men. Granted the outside world is very different from Themysciria but it's still a good place and women are an important part of it."

"My apologies," Myrina said with a formal bow. "We are taught that women have little say in the outside world. I see I must reassess my beliefs. Perhaps we could um, have some… I believe it is called coffee? And talk about it?"

"I'd like that," Sara said with such a pleased expression that Myrina knew that she was telling the truth. "They've got a little coffee shop here in the store. Let's go get something to drink and talk for a while."

Sara led the way, chatting about the beverage and food options available. Myrina found it hard to focus on the content of her worlds. She was far more focused on Sara's bright voice and the lovely sway of her ass as she walked. Let Diana take a man as her lover. Myrina thought that she would stay with women even while she was in the… outside world. She smiled at the mental correction before answering Sara's question.

"I have not had a caramel mocha cappuccino before," Myrina said, "but if you believe them to be so delicious, then I would be delighted to have the same as you."

"Great!" Sara giggled.

+++++

"Dude, that's an Amazon," Barker hissed at Lex as they escaped from the bookstore and headed towards one of the quieter corridors of the mall.

"I know, I know," Lex sighed. "Uncle Tim asked me to show her around which is why I pawned her off on Sara. You know they'll hit it off. I mean come on, Sara's a lesbian. I've got better things to do than baby sit her."

Barker snickered at that. Lex had never liked the older boy but he was a good informant and he believed that Lex was just a runner between him and Batman. Which he was most of the time, though not in this case. Setting up this little meeting with Barker had taken far too much time and effort. He was a bit of a worm but he was a worm with his finger (tail?) on the pulse of the raves across Gotham.

"Okay, I've seen the dude you were asking about," Barker said once they were outside in the smoking area. It was fortunately empty. "Big, burly, violent and short-tempered. Talks to himself a lot."

"Sounds like the right person," Lex agreed.

"You got what I want?" Barker asked.

"Yes," Lex said, holding out and then pulling back a debit card that would let Barker get an obscenely huge quantity of cash. "But do you have what I was sent to get?"

"I got you covered, dude," Barker said with a cocky smirk. He looked around, checked that the security camera was still broken and then pulled a small packet of pictures out of his pocket. "Wasn't easy getting these, let me tell you. That dude's way fast and way violent to anyone that tries to take pics."

They warily swapped, Barker checking the card and password before grinning, and Lex tucking the photos away after verifying them. Despite all of the surveillance they'd put on the clubs in Metropolis, none of their pictures had turned out. Barker's pictures looked like they were usable. Kal's cocky glare stared back at him from the top photo.

"Good job," Lex said. "I'll let you know if there's anything else."

"Pleasure doing business with you, Lexie," Barker said. 

He strolled away whistling a tune that Lex knew to be obscene from having attended several raves in the last few weeks. Before Lex could return to the mall Damian appeared next to him. Damian looked just as dangerous dressed in civilian clothes as he did in regular clothing. Lex nodded to him.

"Trouble?" Lex asked.

"I could use some assistance," Damian replied in his guarded way. "If you have the time?"

Lex considered it for a moment. He pulled out his cell phone and called Sara. She was more than willing to make sure that Myrina got back to the manor once they were done talking so Lex left with Damian. A simple bomb and hostage situation was a nice change of pace from all the parties and raves he'd been to lately. Besides, it would be nice not to have to deal with the complicated personalities of the Titans.

"I wouldn't expect that you'd be smiling given the situation," Damian said as they studied the situation from a nearby rooftop.

"Just missed the simple pleasures of Gotham," Lex said with a little smirk that made Damian laugh. "This is much better than dealing with crushes and flirting."

+++++

"You are not concerned about this meta?" Diana asked.

The Cave was as cool as always; it's dimly lit recesses vaguely threatening in what they might contain. As many times as she had visited Bruce in his Cave, she had never gotten used to it. The Batcave was too powerfully influenced by his personality and his Mission for her to be comfortable there. While Diana understood his drive, she was too much of a warrior to get caught up in the particulars of any loss, especially given how long she had lived.

"Not as strongly as you," Bruce replied with a tilt of his head that implied that he agreed that she had cause to be worried but that he didn't share her degree of concern. "He's very powerful and could be quite dangerous however he has shown no signs of being a threat to the world. I think he's more likely to be like Guy, powerful, dangerous when crossed but mostly on the right side. Lex is working to bring him into the fold."

"Do you think that he can do it?" Diana asked in her most neutral tone of voice. "Myrina has reported to me that Lex's feelings about this Kal are somewhat… personal."

Bruce glowered and slouched back into his chair. He never liked it when Diana brought up the emotions of his Robins but they were not Bruce. They had not spent their entire lives learning to control their emotions. It had caused trouble many times over the years and they both knew it. Before Bruce mustered an answer the elevator's arrival interrupted their discussion.

"Cool, cool, cool!" a young woman's voice squealed.

"Iris, please don't jump up and down," Lex sighed in such an aggrieved tone that it made Diana raise a hand to hide her grin.

"But it's the Batcave!" Iris squealed. "We get to explore the Batcave."

"You do not get to 'explore'," Damian snapped as the doors opened and discharged the Titans, minus Myrina. "You'll stay with the rest of us."

"Awww," Iris groaned. 

She looked positively crushed until they spotted Diana and Bruce at the control center. Lex perked up at seeing Bruce and then blushed slightly when he saw Diana. Of all the Robins, other than Dick, he had the least trouble with Diana's private persona. It was a refreshing change from the way men other than Steve reacted to her.

"Bruce," Lex said, "I've finally managed to get some clear pictures of Kal. We should be able to track down his identity now."

"Good," Bruce said, instantly putting on the mannerisms that made him the one, true Batman in Diana's mind.

She watched silently as Lex, Damian and Bruce studied the pictures of Kal and began searches to locate his true identity. Through it all, she waited for Myrina to appear. The rest of the team was there. It only made sense that Myrina was somewhere close. After ten minutes with no Myrina, Diana tapped Lex's shoulder.

"Yes?" Lex asked absently. His attention was quite obviously on the searches, not on Diana.

"Where is Myrina?" Diana asked.

Lex blinked as her question pulled him out of his concentration. He looked at Lian who shrugged. Jai shook his head. Cerdian looked at Iris who looked back at him and then they all turned back to Lex. Lex had the most peculiar expression on his face. It was as though he was trying to decide whether to be worried or laugh so hard that he cried.

"Just a moment," Lex said. He pulled out his phone and called someone. "Sara? Is Myrina still with you? Really? You do realize that it's been five hours? Yes, five hours. Yes, seriously. No, I'm not kidding. Mm-hmm, you might want to bring her back. No, no, it's okay. Diana's here and worried about her, that's all. Yes, you can meet Diana too if you want. Sure, see you in a few minutes."

Lex closed his phone and chuckled, all of the worry gone. Diana's worries about her young countrywoman had faded as well, though now she was quite curious about who had managed to distract Myrina so thoroughly for so long.

"Who is this Sara?" Diana asked.

"A friend of mine," Lex said with a wild, wicked grin that transformed his normally serious face into one that promised excitement and trouble. It was a good look on him. "She's one of my first friends, actually. She's a lesbian and has been studying the Themyscirian ways. I introduced her to Myrina hours ago and asked her to make sure that Myrina got home again once they were done talking."

"Ah, and they lost track of time, I take it?" Diana laughed at Lex's nod. "I believe I will wait upstairs for them to arrive. I think I would like to meet this young lady who has so captivated Myrina."

Several potential matches came up on the computer so Lex turned away. Diana left them there and took the elevator back to the main floor. After she met this Sara, Diana would have to have a talk with Myrina about relationships with short-lived people. Steve's blessing was virtually unique. There was little chance that Myrina and Sara could end up together for eternity, no matter how attracted they might be to each other. It wasn't a conversation that Diana particularly wanted to have but Myrina apparently needed to hear it.

+++++

"I am so sorry," Sara said again as they drove up to the garage of the Manor. "I really didn't intend to get you in trouble."

"I doubt that I am in trouble, Sara," Myrina said. Her expression was reassuring but her fingers fumbled on the seat belt nervously. "Diana would not be too upset with me and I doubt that anything significant has occurred while we talked."

"Then why are you so nervous?" Sara asked. She had to undo Myrina's seatbelt for her.

"…Diana makes me feel very young and awkward," Myrina admitted in a voice that made her sound thirteen instead of over a hundred. "She's so old and wise that it's… intimidating."

Sara laughed and patted Myrina's hand. They got out, Myrina with a grateful expression, and headed inside. It was nice to know that even after passing a hundred years a person could get nervous and awkward. Oddly, it helped Sara feel far more confident about meeting her personal heroine.

"Myrina," Diana said once they closed the door. "I am glad to see that you are making friends."

"Highness," Myrina said in Themyscirian, "may I present Sara Anderson? She has studied our language and attained some degree of proficiency. I have agreed to help her learn more if she will help me with my English."

"I am honored," Sara said with what she hoped was a proper bow.

Diana was taller than Myrina and a thousand times as impressive. Her hair was back in a bun instead of loose the way she normally wore it when in costume. Seeing her this way made Sara understand why Myrina found her so intimidating. She seemed a million years old and entirely too wise to the gentle flirting that had been going on between the two of them.

"I am honored to meet you," Diana said. Her smile seemed quite genuine. "Thank you for taking care of my countrywoman. Myrina is quite young and inexperienced in the Man's world's ways."

Sara sighed and squared her shoulders before looking Diana in the eyes. "Please don't call us that. This world doesn't belong only to men and it denigrates the women who live here when you ignore their existence."

Diana's jaw dropped open for a moment and then she laughed long and hard. The look she gave Myrina was much more approving. It made Myrina turn so brilliantly red that Sara couldn't help but grin. When Diana turned back to Sara there was a great deal more approval in her eyes.

"My apologies," Diana said. "It is an old habit that I should obviously work on breaking."

"Yes, please," Sara said. "I'm sure that at one time in history it was more accurate than it is now but even then women were still there, no matter how disadvantaged. I just think that we, well everyone, should be more aware of the real contributions that women make, no matter where they're from."

"I quite agree," Diana said. "Alfred has made some tea. I think I would enjoy talking with you while drinking it."

"Um, sure," Sara said. She looked over at Myrina who looked kind of like someone had hit her up back of the head with a board. "I can't stay terribly long because I'm already overdue at home but I think my parents would understand my staying for a little while. It's not every day that you get to talk to Wonder Woman, after all."

Diana grinned at that and led the way. Sara let out a little relieved sigh once her back was turned. She really was impressive but there was no way that Sara would back away from this discussion. Myrina looked at Sara as if she was concerned.

"Looks like it's round two of the 'men's world' discussion," Sara quipped. Myrina laughed and nodded. "Come on. Let's see if Alfred made scones. He makes the best scones, seriously. You've got to try them. My favorite are the apple cinnamon ones but he's got some blueberry ones that are just to die for."

+++++

"Hey," Kal said once he'd managed to get the ring back on, pick himself up and run back to his loft.

"Hey you," Lexi said in such a bright, pleased tone of voice that it relaxed both Kal and Clark. "You sound tired."

"Bad night," Kal lied. "You sound like you're having fun."

"Heh, oh yeah, lots of fun," Lexi said with a wicked laugh. "New computer, lots of stuff to surf and Myrina's off talking with her aunt and a friend of mine so I'm free to talk as long as you want."

"Really?" Clark asked, forcing himself to the front long enough to get the word out before letting Kal take over again.

"Yeah," Lexi said gently. "Really. I can talk all night if you want."

Kal collapsed back onto their bed and sighed. The red meteor rock ring glinted at him in the dim light of their loft. They were both trapped. Sure, they got to move around as much as they wanted to and do pretty much everything they wanted except go home and be open about their powers but they were still trapped. Eventually Jor-El would break through and take them over. Eventually they would become his puppet dedicated to ruling the world.

"You ever wish you'd never been born?" Kal asked.

"Lots of times," Lexi said in a deeper, darker voice. "My dad was… pretty abusive. He's in prison now but… yeah. Lots of times. You having trouble with your family?"

"Just my birth-father," Kal admitted. It didn't really matter what he told her but he still didn't intend to give her enough specifics to be tracked down. Mom and Dad deserved their peace, as did his unborn little sister. "He's a bastard with all these plans for my life. Don't want anything to do with them but he won't leave me alone. I just got done… talking to him."

"My dad had lots of plans for me, too," Lexi murmured. "My adoptive father's a lot better about that. Guidance but not dictates."

"Lucky," Kal said.

"Very," Lexi agreed. "Very lucky indeed. My life would have been totally different if my father hadn't ended up in prison."

"So what happened?" Kal asked.

"You sure you want to know?" Lexi asked. "It's a long story and kind of sick in places."

"I'm sure," Kal said. "It'll take my mind off of my problems and 'sides, I want to get to know you better."

Lexi laughed that very flattered laugh that made Kal's cock jump and Clark sigh happily in the back of their mind. Nothing was going to come of it, but it was nice to have someone to talk to. It had been so long since Kal and Clark had anyone that they could talk to, even a little bit.

"Well," Lexi began, "I think the first thing you need to know is that my father's parents were small-time criminals in Metropolis, not that Father ever admitted that. I learned that during the trial…"

Kal settled back into bed and listened to Lexi talk with a purely Clarkish smile on their face.

+++++

"Clark," Lex murmured.

"What?" 

Jai's question from the couch didn't sound interested. If anything, it sounded like he didn't want to hear what Lex was working on. He didn't look up from his video game. Lex wasn't entirely sure why Jai had decided to stay up with him as he worked but he had. Everyone else was in bed after yet another failed attempt to capture Kal that had resulted in several buildings being destroyed, Myrina being thrown through a mall, literally, and the twins nearly capturing Kal only to have him take flight at the last instant. He'd gotten good enough at flying that he was gone before Milagro could follow him.

"Kal. His real name is Clark Kent," Lex said.

"You found him?" Jai asked. He was by Lex's side in an instant. "Whoa, that's him but… not."

"I think this is the quiet side of him that we've heard from time to time," Lex said while staring at the Smallville high school picture that one Chloe Sullivan had printed in their newspaper, the Torch. "Kal is the wild side. Somehow Clark's been buried and Kal's taken over. Or maybe someone has possessed him. Not sure yet."

"Huh, weird," Jai murmured. He took over the mouse and clicked at super speed through all the data Lex had gathered so far. "He was just a normal kid. Where did all this power come from?"

"I don't know," Lex said. "But the ring, you know the big red one he wears? Before that ring he was Clark. After it, he was Kal."

Jai straightened up and stared at Lex for a long moment. "So the ring is doing it?"

"That's my theory at the moment," Lex said. "I'm not sure where the ring came from. Clark may have had powers before the ring but there's no sign of it. The most logical thing is for the ring to be the source of his powers. I'm going to have to have Milagro determine if the ring is like hers or something else entirely. And I think Cerdian needs to do some magical scans to see if he's possessed."

"Weird," Jai repeated.

"Very." Lex agreed.

Jai retreated back to the couch and his game. Lex continued to study Clark Kent. From what Lex could find online, Clark Kent was in every way Kal's opposite. He was quiet, studious, helpful, kind, gentle and caring. There were no records of his ever being arrested. At no time had he shown any signs of being a Meta or a mutant. His adoption appeared to have been highly irregular given that he had been found in a field after the meteor shower, but as far as Lex could determine it was legal. Unlike his alter ego Kal, Clark Kent was the everyman. He was as normal as could be.

"Are you still working?" Lian asked what seemed like an hour or so later.

"Yes," Lex snapped at her. "So please don't interrupt."

"Lex, it's morning," Lian said. 

She tapped persistently at his shoulder until he looked away from the screen. The sun was shining through the windows on the far side of the room, having risen high enough to top the globe on the top of the Daily Planet building. Jai was long gone. Lex couldn't remember when he'd left though he did remember Jai muttering something about getting some sleep. He looked at Lian and snorted at the way she was grinning.

"I found out who Kal is, or was at any rate," Lex told her while rubbing his eyes. No wonder his eyes had been burning. It was exhaustion.

"Seriously?" Lian asked, all the amusement disappearing to be replaced by curiosity.

He showed her everything he'd found, which consumed another hour or so. Mercy showed up with breakfast for the two of them towards the end of it. The other team members drifted through while they verified Lex's findings and expanded them. Eventually, they adjourned to the meeting room so that Lex could share what he'd found. Somehow Dick and Jason had appeared to hear what he'd found, using whatever mysterious Bat-methods they had to spy on them to discover that he'd succeeded at last.

"His name was Clark Kent," Lex explained to the others. "He appears to have been a perfectly normal young man from Smallville, Kansas until he acquired a red meteor rock ring. I'm not sure yet whether the ring is possessed or if it simply brings out the wild side of his soul. Either way, once he put on the ring Clark Kent was buried inside of Kal and the crime spree began."

"So if we get the ring off of him Clark should return?" Cerdian asked. "Maybe we could exorcise it somehow?"

"That's your area of expertise," Lex said, nodding at his words. "I think we need to do a bit more research in Smallville as most of the town's records are physical rather than digital. I also want to talk to Chloe Sullivan about Clark Kent. She appears to have been his friend and she's quite the junior reporter. I'd really like to speak with his parents as they probably know the most about what happened to him."

"Better be careful on that front," Jason drawled from the back of the room where he was holding up the wall by slouching against it. "They might not appreciate having the Titans nosing about their lives."

"Actually, I intended to go in as Lex Wayne," Lex said. "Or more accurately, as Lex Luthor. My father had a mansion brought from Scotland and rebuilt in Smallville. That's part of why we were there when the meteors fell. I've never been to the mansion because of my mother's hatred for the town. I was thinking that we have a party of some sort and hold it in Smallville at the mansion. It would certainly be a boost to the local economy and it would let me see if I want to get rid of the place, which I probably will. I can't imagine keeping it."

The party idea worked fairly brilliantly. While Lex didn't know anyone (other than Kyle and Sara) who was normal, the others certainly did. Given Myrina's public involvement with Tim and Lex Wayne, it made a certain sort of sense for the family to have a big party in the long-abandoned Luthor Mansion.

Of course, setting up the party took a fairly large amount of coordination. Besides the effort of throwing a high-class party in small town Kansas, they had to be careful not to pull too many superheroes away from their normal patrols. Diana had to be there, as did Tim, which meant that both Wonder Woman and Batman weren't available. Dick, Jason and Steph had to be there, which knocked out Nightwing, Batgirl and Red Hood. Damian flatly refused to stoop to attend a party with everyone else, so Bloodwing would still be patrolling.

Oliver insisted on coming. Roy refused to. Conner, Mia and Cissie agreed to attend too. It wasn't an issue for any of the speedsters to attend, as they could keep up the illusion of being in two places at once fairly easily, though Lex was glad that it was summer and they would be able to leave the doors open throughout the mansion. He hated the thought of one of them slamming into a door accidentally.

Hal and Guy both refused to attend the party but Jade was more than delighted to come and keep Milagro company, especially when her brother insisted on attending. Milagro insisted right back that he didn't need to and was just trying to annoy her. The shouting match on that one could be heard two floors away.

By the time the team was arguing about which third tier heroes and friends should or should not attend the party and the guest list had grown from a couple dozen to possibly a couple hundred, Lex was at his wits end. Lian showed up in his room and slammed the door, leaning against it as if to block the world out.

"Can we go scope that place out?" Lian asked. "Please?"

"What?" Lex asked warily.

"Jai is arguing with four separate relatives in four separate cities about the party and Iris keeps zipping in and out asking me which dresses she should wear," Lian groaned. "They're pink. With ruffles. Lots and lots of ruffles."

Lex swallowed a laugh and nodded. They managed to escape from the Tower fairly smoothly, though Myrina wasn't terribly pleased at being put in charge of the madhouse that the Tower had become. Lian drove nearly as crazily to escape Metropolis as Lex would have. He made a mental note to make sure to get his driver's license as soon as possible. Robin could drive but officially Lex Wayne couldn't yet.

"Wow, this is way smaller than I expected, even with the name," Lian said once they got there a couple of hours later.

"It's a little bigger than I remember," Lex said as they drove down the pathetically tiny main street. "Not much, but a little. Hmm, I may have to talk to Tim about doing some sort of development here. Most of the place looks like it's on the verge of shutting down."

Lian nodded agreement. Two blocks later they were heading out of town towards the mansion, which was set in an odd-for-Kansas wooded patch. They both whistled at the size of the place. It was three times larger than Lex had thought, though not as grand as Wayne Manor. He could see people scurrying to get the place spruced up as they drove up.

"Sir," one of the men gasped as they got out of the car. "We didn't expect you so soon."

"We had to escape from the preparations back home," Lex said with a wry shrug. "Sorry to upend your lives this way."

"It's no problem," the foreman said with a blatantly insincere smile. "You and your… girlfriend are welcome to see what we've done so far."

Lian burst out laughing at that, while Lex groaned and rolled his eyes. The foreman looked confused but he laughed gamely. Waving a hand, Lex sighed and headed for the front door.

"She's actually a childhood friend," Lex said. "Lian's family has been friends with the Wayne family since my grandfather Bruce's days."

"My granddad Ollie still fights with Bruce all the time," Lian agreed. "This place is huge. I didn't expect it to be so big when Bruce suggested having Myrina's party here."

Lex noted without reacting to the way the foreman responded to his use of Wayne as his family name. The man might as well have been slapped. Throughout the afternoon, Lex kept getting that reaction. It was the first time since his father was arrested and Tim adopted him that Lex had faced the prejudice that was associated with his real father's name. By the time they'd checked out the mansion, Lian was glowering.

"What the heck, Lex?" Lian whispered as they went back to the car to find Chloe Sullivan. "Why are they reacting this way to you?"

"Because my name used to be Lex Luthor," Lex said with a tiny shrug. He didn't allow his genial smile to slip, despite the effort. "The Luthor family is… known… in town."

They both stopped in their tracks as something whooshed by them. Lian's eyes were as wide as saucers when she met Lex's eyes. He suspected that his eyes were just as large. That whoosh was far too familiar after all of their battles against Kal, not that either of them could say anything without being overheard. They started when Jeff Palmer, son of the caretaker stomped around the corner and found them standing there.

"Did you see him?" Jeff demanded.

"Who?" Lex asked.

"The 'ghost'," Jeff said, using air quotes while glaring around the room. "Everyone's convinced that there's a ghost haunting the mansion but I know that it's just a meteor freak hiding in here."

"You're sure?" Lex asked. 

His mind had already started going a million miles an hour. It made sense. Kal would be able to hide in the building without any problems. The mansion was big enough that there was a ton of room for him to get around in, and with his powers he'd be able to slip in and out without any problems. Better still, the mansion was close to his home. He could see his parents and his friends without anyone knowing. There was no way that anyone would come looking in Smallville for Kal. Lex wouldn't have done so if it hadn't been for the party and his efforts to find out more about Clark Kent.

"Of course I'm sure," Jeff said. 

He looked away in just the right way to make Lex suspicious. There was something more to his certainty, though at this moment Lex had no clue what it was. Lian nodded her millimeter nod of confirmation that she'd seen it too. They asked the appropriately clueless questions of Jeff, pumping him for information that he apparently didn't have or wasn't willing to give. Eventually they had to leave if they were going to catch Chloe before she left the Torch at school.

"This town has more secrets than I expected," Lian commented once they parked in the school parking lot.

"Smallville probably has as many secrets per capita as Gotham," Lex said. "They're just better at hiding it than Gotham is."

The Torch was a one-room office in the school with two desks and one blond haired girl typing away at her computer. Lex took her in and then was captivated by the far wall. Articles, photos and clippings covered the wall, all of them recounting strange events that had happened in Smallville, though Lex did see that one corner had clippings from all over the world. They all seemed to relate to Kal.

"Wow," Lian breathed, "that is the coolest thing ever!"

"Huh?" Chloe Sullivan looked up, staring at them as if she hadn't noticed them come in. Given the guilty look on her face Lex suspected that she'd been so focused on her computer that she hadn't noticed their arrival. "Oh, um, hi?"

"Hi," Lex said, offering a hand to her with his best welcoming smile. "I'm Lex Wayne and this is my friend Lian Harper."

"Not Lex Luthor?" Chloe asked. She had a good, firm grip and such a perceptive, curious expression that Lex thought that she might be as intelligent as she seemed from his background checks.

Lex shook his head now, chuckling at the way Lian went over to peer at and study all the articles. Chloe looked like she was torn between pride and shame over the wall. She hesitated for a second and then turned back to Lex when he shrugged.

"My real father was abusive and he's rotting in prison, exactly as he deserves," Lex said in answer to her question. "Timothy Wayne is more of a father to me than my real father ever was."

"Oh," Chloe said. The way she said it made him think that he was now in interview mode. "So what can I do for you, Mr. Wayne?"

"Please, call me Lex," Lex said. He perched on the end of the other desk and sighed. "I was hoping for your help. I'm trying to find someone and having very little luck at it. His name is Clark Kent."

Chloe shut down so abruptly that Lian turned and stared at her. Lex was tempted to stare too but he didn't. He kept a hopeful, patient expression on his face as Chloe whirled and went back to her desk, putting the bulk of it between them.

"Clark ran away months ago," Chloe said in a bitingly cold tone of voice. "He hasn't contacted anyone, including me. He hasn't even contacted his poor parents and his mom is pregnant right now."

"I know," Lex said calmly. "There are reasons for that. Very big ones. Um, can you keep a secret, Chloe? Actually, a couple of secrets?"

"Maybe," Chloe said slowly as she visibly fought with her curiosity.

"You haven't asked the obvious question," Lex said while running a hand over his scalp. "Can I answer it by saying that my family was in town the day of the meteor shower?"

Chloe started and stared at him. She bit her lip, getting a good bit more curious but also a little afraid. Lian moved closer to Lex, hovering behind him protectively. Lex gave her a rueful smile and shrug, sighing as he looked out the window behind Chloe. He'd have to be careful about how he formulated his lies, but if he did a good job of it he might just get Chloe to tell him what she knew about Clark Kent and Kal.

"You're…?" Chloe waved a hand at Lex as if trying to find words.

"I only heal," Lex said. "If I'm injured, I heal abnormally quickly. I never get sick. It was… useful, when my father was still free and my father. Anything you've ever heard about Lionel Luthor is likely just the tip of the very seamy iceberg."

Chloe flinched, swallowing hard. Lian put a gentle hand on Lex's shoulder, making a sympathetic little noise of support. Chloe nodded and put her reporter's face on, leaning on her desk in such a way as to make her breasts push up and together. Lex ignored it in favor of smiling at Lian over his shoulder.

"It's okay now," Lex said. "But the only reason that I'm free of my father and living with the Wayne family is because Batman saved me. He was the one that got the information on my father's crimes. He was the one that pointed Tim Wayne towards me. Ever since then I've… done little things to help him out. In this case I'm helping Batman help Wonder Woman."

"Seriously?" Chloe asked, her curiosity fully engaged now. "What with?"

"Well," Lex said while pulling out a his cell phone and using one of the special functions to scan for bugs, "it's the other secret I need you to keep."

"Bugs?" Chloe asked. She craned her neck a little but didn't demand to see his phone.

"We're secure," Lex said. "Gift of a certain Bat. It's really cool. Anyway, um, Wonder Woman has had several of her countrywomen come to our world in the past. And one of them… fell in love. With a man. She had a son, who of course could not be raised on Themysciria, their laws being what they are. This has been kept very quiet but shortly after the boy's third birthday he was kidnapped."

"Oh my God," Chloe whispered.

"No one could ever find him," Lex continued, "but Batman thinks that he and his kidnappers might have been caught in the meteor shower here in Smallville. There was supposed to be some special something that was with him that marked him as Themyscirian but I don't know what that was or even if he still has it."

"Clark," Chloe breathed. Her hands flew to her mouth and she stared at Lex as if he'd just supplied the missing piece to a puzzle she'd been working to solve for a very long time. "You think the lost baby is Clark."

"Maybe," Lex said. "We never found any sign that Clark had powers but—"

"He did!" Chloe said, flailing her had for a second before she got control of herself. "Oh my God, it makes so much sense. You, this, oh my God! We have to go talk to the Kents. Now. No, don't argue. We have to talk to them right _now_."

"Why?" Lian asked.

Chloe shoveled notes and books into a hugely oversized purse, muttering under her breath. Lex couldn't tell if the mutters were curses, prayers or just random exclamations about what she'd just learned. It took a second for Chloe to register Lian's quiet question. When she did, Chloe laughed like she was on the verge of crying.

"Because you might be able to save him," Chloe said. "Clark's gone crazy or something, and you have links to Batman and Wonder Woman. Someone has to save him. He's out of control and hurting, Lex, Lian. You might be his only hope of surviving whatever's happened to him."

+++++

Chloe did her best not to drive like a bat out of hell but she kind of thought that it wouldn't have made a bit of difference if she'd driven as though Death itself was chasing her. Lian seemed to be glued to the rear bumper of Chloe's car. The thought that Lex and Lian might know what Clark was, where he'd come from, was enough to transmute Chloe's foot into pure lead. Fortunately for them, the Sheriff seemed to be somewhere else entirely because they made it to the Kent farm without getting a ticket.

"Chloe," Jonathan said when she got out of her car. His expression darkened as Lian drove up and parked behind Chloe. "What's up?"

"Can we talk to you?" Chloe asked. "Inside? It's really important."

"Martha's not feeling well," Jonathan said with the hardest, most suspicious expression Chloe had ever seen on his face. He was glaring straight at Lex. "Is it important?"

"It's in regards to your son, Clark," Lex said exceedingly politely.

Jonathan straightened up to his full height, glaring down at Lex. Whatever he was so upset about made him seem a thousand times more angry and dangerous than normal. His expression was so ferocious that Chloe winced. Lex met the glare calmly though his friend Lian fidgeted behind him. He seemed to be immune to Jonathan's anger, which made sense if what Chloe had found over the years about the Luthor family was true. After living with Lionel Luthor, Lex probably had a spine of steel.

"What?" Jonathan asked so harshly that Chloe opened her mouth to explain. He waved a hand at her, shutting Chloe up immediately.

"It's rather sensitive," Lex said still entirely calmly though now that Chloe looked she could see that his fingers were shaking very slightly. Maybe his spine wasn't as steely as she'd thought. "It truly would be better to discuss it inside. He's not in any danger nor has he been harmed as far as I know. Please, sir. I just want to talk to you about your son. It's very important, for his sake."

A thousand emotions ran over Jonathan's face, too quickly for Chloe to get a good read on them. It felt like a decade before Jonathan nodded abruptly and stomped into his house, but it was probably only a few seconds. Chloe let out a sigh of relief, and pushed her bag up on her shoulder before following Jonathan. Lian and Lex exchanged a quiet whisper but they followed Chloe with no other comment.

"Martha honey," Jonathan said, his voice kind and worried once they were inside, "you okay?"

"Mmm?"

Chloe winced at seeing Martha lying on the couch, apparently just waking up from a nap. There were flyers for Clark scattered on the floor and coffee table. She'd been covered up by an old afghan and pushed it aside to sit up awkwardly. Her belly was large enough that it interfered with her movements but to Chloe her face looked too thin, hinting at the continuing problems she was having bearing Clark's little brother or sister.

"Who?" Martha asked. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and studied Lex and Lian intently. The sleepiness faded immediately, though the lines around her mouth from nausea and her illness didn't fade at all. They deepened.

"I'm Lian Harper and this is my friend Lex Wayne," Lian said.

"Luthor," Jonathan growled.

"I gave up that name after my father was arrested for murder, arson and insurance fraud, among other more personal things," Lex said far too calmly. The trembling of his fingers was a lot more obvious. "My name is Wayne now."

Martha put her hand on Jonathan's arm, spearing him with a look that made Jonathan look like he'd been stabbed. He signed and sat down next to Martha, pulling her into a one-armed hug. Lian looked nearly as protective of Lex, standing close behind him and glaring at Jonathan as if he was the meanest person ever.

"Look, I never admitted to any of this before," Chloe started to say only to stop as Lex pulled out his cell phone and then nodded after studying it for a few seconds.

"What's that?" Jonathan demanded.

"Bugs," Lex said, tucking his phone away again. "We're not being observed or recorded."

"I never admitted that I knew about Clark's powers," Chloe repeated, this time much more loudly so that she could be heard over Jonathan's growling outburst. Jonathan shut up immediately, staring at her. "But it was kind of obvious that he was different. I couldn't figure it out because I could see that he could do more than one thing and meteor mutants only do one thing."

"You know a lot," Lex murmured, now watching Chloe with wary eyes.

Chloe shrugged. She'd started learning about the mutants out of pure curiosity and continued once she realized how much damage was being done to everyone's lives. It had been dangerous, scary and occasionally disgusting but knowing about the mutations around her had saved her life and some of her friend's lives before.

"I always wondered about Clark," Chloe continued, speaking directly to Jonathan and Martha. "I could never understand why he was different. Lex and Lian have information that made sense to me and I really thought you needed to hear it."

"Please sit down, kids," Martha said, firmly taking control of the discussion. Her hand on Jonathan's arm seemed to be more like a gag to keep him from objecting. Once they'd all sat, Martha looked at Lex. "Now. What was it you wanted to tell us?"

"Um, a little history is good," Lex said, his voice shaking slightly. His hands were clenched together so that they couldn't shake. "My real father was turned in by Batman. He discovered what had happened to my mom and little brother, what was happening to me, and he stopped it. Along the way he discovered all the crimes that my father had committed and he provided evidence that proved that Lionel had murdered his parents, committed murder, fraud, rape, and a laundry list of other offenses."

"What happened to you?" Martha asked. Her voice was cool but her expression had that fierce Mama Bear look that always made Chloe miss her mom.

"I…" Lex sighed and shrugged off Lian's comforting hand. "Mental, physical and emotional abuse, with some hints that he was… edging towards more adult activities. Not that that happened, thank goodness. Batman saved me and Tim Wayne adopted me. I don't consider myself to be a Luthor anymore. I'm Lex Wayne, not Lex Luthor, thank God."

Martha's Mama Bear look was joined by Jonathan's 'going to kill someone for doing that' look. Chloe shivered and pressed back into her chair, staying as quiet as possible. Lian's eyes were wide. Her lips had gone so thin that Chloe thought that she'd decided that she wouldn't say another word anytime in the next decade.

"Anyway," Lex continued so quickly that Chloe thought he wanted to forget that the subject had ever come up, "ever since then, Batman has kept an eye on me. Given the level of society that I live in, I'm sometimes able to get him information he needs. Recently, he asked for my help with a problem that he's been working on for a long time."

Martha leaned into Jonathan's side, listening intently to Lex's words. Chloe heard a whoosh outside but there wasn't a creak on the porch and it always creaked when someone stepped on it. Lex and Lian both looked, as did Martha and Jonathan. That Lex and Lian knew to look for someone when there was a whoosh of air seemed to say more than words to Martha.

"Clark," Martha murmured.

"Yes," Lex said, turning back to her. "You see, Wonder Woman occasionally brings other Themyscirians to our world. And one of those women fell in love with a man here and she had a child. A son. That boy was kidnapped when he was about three years old and no one has ever been able to find him. He was supposed to have something special with him, something that marked him as a Themyscirian but I don't know what it is."

Both Jonathan and Martha froze. Martha went so white that her skin looked like paper. She clutched her belly and Jonathan held her close, wrapping her up in his arms and tucking her under his chin as if to protect her from what Lex was saying. Lex swallowed hard, looking utterly apologetic.

"After doing a lot of tracking work, Batman thought that your son Clark might be the lost boy," Lex said far more gently. "I don't know why or what he learned but he asked me to see if I could track Clark down."

"The party," Martha murmured. "It's that Myrina's way of seeing if Clark is her relative."

"That's part of it," Lex said with a nod. "But… Mr. and Mrs. Kent, from what I could see, Clark never hurt a fly. He's a kind, gentle, loving boy. At the same time, there's a young man called Kal who's rampaging around Metropolis, who looks exactly like your son and who occasionally acts like him."

"Just for a few seconds at a time," Lian interjected. "We've been trying to talk to him, helping the Teen Titans and Batman on this, because we're his age and stuff, but he's… dangerous."

"He wears a red ring," Lex said, leaning forward. "Right now the best theory is that the ring is affecting him somehow. We don't know. Basically, we just want to find him and talk to him."

"Something's wrong," Chloe said, taking over when Lex's words faded. "You know Clark would never have run away like this, not when you're not doing well. He loves you guys way too much to just up and leave. And the weird way he's been behaving, it doesn't make sense!"

Martha's lips were twitching as if she was fighting a smile. Her color was coming back. Jonathan still had his protective look on but it wasn't quite as hostile as it had been. Before Chloe could continue, Martha held up a hand, stopping all three of them. She turned and looked up at Jonathan to raise one eyebrow.

"Martha, you can't mean to…"

"I think we need to, Jon," Martha said so quietly and firmly that Jonathan sighed. "Clark hasn't come home. Whatever the ring has done to him, we can't help him. Maybe Lex and his… allies… can help Clark."

She stood and led them all outside, holding onto Jonathan's hand in a grip that turned both of their knuckles white. Chloe shrugged at the curious look that Lian threw at her. This was something entirely new to her. Lex was totally focused on the Kent's, walking behind them out to the storm cellar as if this was the most important thing in the entire world. Once they were inside and Jonathan pulled the tarp off of the big bulky thing in the back of the storm cellar, Chloe thought that maybe it was the most important thing in the world.

"We thought it might be a space ship," Martha said quietly. She chuckled as Lex pulled out his cell phone and checked for bugs again. "It was open briefly when we found it but it closed within a few seconds of our getting there. We never did find anyone who knew Clark or where he'd come from. This seemed important and tied to Clark."

"Did he know?" Lex asked.

He very gingerly ran his fingers over the nose of the ship-cradle-whatever it was. Chloe kind of wanted to touch it too, but the thing scared the heck out of her so she stayed back by the stairs. Lian stayed by Martha's side, acting as if she was prepared to catch Martha if she fell. Or maybe she was hiding behind Martha because she seemed as spooked as Chloe felt.

"No," Jonathan said. "We… we told him about it the day before he disappeared. He was always special, always strong. We really thought that he was from space, our star child."

"He could be," Lex said. "There's no guarantee that Clark is the boy that we were looking for. He could be someone else entirely."

He kept his hand on the spaceship-thing, looking first at Jonathan and then at Martha. Lex seemed to realize that Martha was the one who was really in charge. Where Jonathan defended the family, Martha ruled. It should have made Chloe grin but it actually made her sad. There was so little of this family left now that Clark had left, even with the promise of Martha's baby.

"Would it be all right if I told Batman about this?" Lex asked. "He might be able to study the ship, figure out what it is. I don't know if this is what Wonder Woman was talking about but… the more information we have the more likely we'll be able to help Clark."

Martha nodded, stepping to Lex. She put her hands on either side of Lex's face, studying his eyes as if she was trying to see into his soul. Lian opened her mouth to object but Lex stilled in Martha's hands, looking up at her as if she was his mother and he'd been desperate for a hug for a very long time. As soon as Chloe thought it she realized that Lex probably had been missing his mother for a long time, just as she had.

"Do," Martha murmured. "I don't know anything about the ring but if this can help save Clark, then do it. He's our son, the son of our hearts. Do whatever you can to save him, Lex. Please."

She pressed a gentle kiss against Lex's forehead. It was dark in the storm cellar, and Lex's face was shadowed from the light by Martha's body, but Chloe thought that just maybe she saw a tear creep down Lex's cheek. A moment later she thought she heard a whoosh outside but it was faint and distant. It was probably just a breeze.

+++++

"Damn them, damn them," Kal chanted as he flew up into the stratosphere, heading around the world as fast as he could.

It was sheer anger, fear and worry. Well, that plus disgust at himself for falling for _Lexi's_ trick. He'd wondered when Lex Luthor arrived in Smallville. There was no reason for Lex to come to Smallville, and even less reason for them to have a party there. The old mansion had been abandoned for so long that it had to be some sort of trick. Kal and Clark's curiosity had kicked in, so they'd snuck into the mansion while Lex was there.

And then discovered just how gullible they'd been.

Lex. Lexi. It should have been obvious. Once Kal saw Lex up close it was obvious. Lex had the exact same scar on his lip that Lexi had. He had the same smile, the same skin. Hell, he had the same heartbeat, which really should have told Kal what was going on.

'The waist cincher should have told us,' Clark said sadly as they passed over India and the Himalayas.

"No shit," Kal grumbled, pushing even faster.

'Though I'm kind of glad Rina interfered before you groped Lexi,' Clark said.

His mental blush made Kal bark a laugh. Yeah, that would have been pretty fucking embarrassing. Reaching for one sort of plumbing and finding another was never a good surprise. They did two circuits around the earth and then another one from pole to pole. By the time they were flying back over Kansas, Kal realized that he was hearing something that confused him.

"Is Lex…?"

'Crying?' Clark finished when Kal couldn't.

It certainly sounded like tears. Well, it sounded like the way Clark cried, all suppressed sobs and bitten lips with tears dripping quietly. Kal didn't really cry. He got mad and threw things and broke stuff when he was that upset. But when Clark cried, yeah, that was very similar to the sound he made.

"Huh," Kal grunted. 

He zoomed into the mansion, sneaking into one of the bedrooms about four down from where Lex was. There really wasn't much time before their nightly torture but curiosity was one of the failings that they both shared. Kal sat on the bed and peered through the walls, locating Lex pretty easily.

'Wow,' Clark breathed.

"Yeah," Kal whispered.

Lex was curled up on his bed, his knees pressed against his chest. He'd wrapped his arms around his head as if trying to hide from the world. Kal didn't think he'd ever been that miserable but he sure as hell knew that Clark had been. Clark shivered, triggering Kal to shiver too. They moved as one, pulling out their cell phone and calling Lexi, Lex. They could see the instant that Lex started and turned to stare at his phone. When he answered it that put any lingering doubt about Lex being Lexi to bed.

"Hey," Kal said, leaving the 'sexy' off because he was still annoyed, though less than he had been.

"Oh, hi," Lex said, his voice thick with tears. He sniffled and tried to control his voice but it was obvious that he was really, seriously, upset. Even if they hadn't been looking right at him, Kal would have known.

"You okay?" Kal asked. "Do I have to smack a bitch?"

"No," Lex laughed in spite of the tears. "No, it's not that. Just… long day. Bad day. God, it's been such a long time since I had a day this bad."

"What happened?" Clark asked.

Lex drew in a long, shuddering breath. They watched as he slowly curled back up into a ball. It made Kal's heart hurt. Clark whimpered inside of them. Bright, personable Lexi shouldn't be that miserable. Strong Lex shouldn't either. Despite the way time was ticking onwards to their nightly torture, they stayed on the bed in Lex's mansion.

"You remember how I told you about my dad?" Lex whispered. "How he'd been arrested?"

"Yeah," Kal said.

"Well, he didn't just hurt other people," Lex admitted as if it hurt him to say it. "He hurt my mom and me too. Me more than Mom, honestly. He never, never approved of anything I did. Always ran me down, belittled me. Used to beat me up a lot. It, it's something that I… I try and forget. My life is so good now. I shouldn't be trapped by the past. It's over. But if I talk about it with people, it brings it back and it hurts. And everyone here, they only see my dad. They don't see me. They look at me and see his evil and think I'm just like him and it _hurts!"_

Kal sighed, wondering if this was real. Clark's heart had already gone out to Lex but Kal couldn't help but be suspicious. The way Lex's heart was fluttering and the sobs he was fighting against seemed to be real but the doubt was driving Kal crazy. He shrugged, sighed and watched Lex carefully.

"So Lionel was a bastard to you?" Kal said.

"I wondered how long it would take for you to figure it out," Lex said, not even flinching. He only sounded tired. "I wasn't exactly hiding who I was when I talked to you."

"Fuck," Kal sighed. "Look, you really need to leave us alone, Lex. You're sexy as hell and I bet we could have a ton of fun together but we're dangerous to everyone around us."

"Us," Lex said, still in that tired voice. "You always say us. Is the other part of you Clark?"

"Yeah," Kal said, still watching Lex's reactions. "He's here, in me. It's part of the whole fucking mess. Look, I gotta go. There's stuff I have to deal with right now."

"Sure," Lex said.

He hadn't reacted to Kal's calm acceptance that Lex knew about Clark. He also hadn't reacted to the fact that Clark was still inside of Kal. In fact, the way he said the word was anything but 'go ahead'. It was so pinched that it was 'please don't go!' mixed with 'sure, I understand that I'm not important enough to talk to.' Kal winced. How many fucking times had he heard Clark say that exact same word, in that exact same tone of voice to his friends or family?

"Fuck," Kal groaned. "Look, give me a second, okay? There's something I have to take care of and then you'll understand a little better why you should back off and leave me alone."

"What?" Lex asked, for the first time sounding like he had a little life in him. Not much but it was better than what had been before.

Kal didn't answer him. He left his cell phone on and zipped out of the mansion and out into one of the fields not too far away, just about twenty-five miles off. It was too close to Jor-El, not that they'd found that distance made much of a difference for the nightly torture. Once they were sure that they were alone, Kal put the pulled off his shirt so that he wouldn't tear it and then sat down and put the phone to his ear.

"Look, I'm putting it on speakerphone, Lex," Kal said. "This… isn't pretty but it's important. It's why I can't go home."

"Kal, what's going on?" Lex asked. He sounded much more alert and aware now, as if the fear and pain he'd been dealing with were falling away as he worried about Kal and Clark.

"You'll see."

Kal carefully set his phone aside, bracing himself as his chest started burning. He fought against the burn as long as he could, tried to suppress the screams. Eventually he had to take off the ring and toss it aside, which let Jor-El tear straight into their minds. As always, they managed not to toss it too far. The power of Jor-El filed their minds, making Kal and Clark scream hopelessly as their father tried to burn through their resistance.

The knowledge that Lex was listening, the sound of him shouting over Kal's screams of pain, helped them resist until the burning faded along with Jor-El's power and they could scramble for the ring. Kal whimpered once they managed to get it back on their finger. It was hard to breathe. Their legs and arms were shaking so hard that it was difficult to sit up.

"Kal!" Lex shouted. "Kal, are you there?"

"Yeah," Kal said. His voice came out hoarse due to the screaming. "We're here."

"What the hell was that?" Lex asked. 

He sounded nothing at all like Lexi but a lot like Robin, which made Clark perk up in the back of Kal's head. That might explain a lot of other things but Kal didn't have the energy to deal with it right then.

"That was our destiny," Kal said. He slowly pulled his shirt on, picking up his phone. "Our enemy, our future, our doom, all at once. There's not a Goddamned thing you can do about it, Lex. I know you want to help. I know Mom and Dad and Chloe want to help. Hell, even Pete would probably help if he knew but there's nothing that any of you can do. We're going to suffer like that every day until we break."

"What happens when you break?" Lex asked. There was fear and worry in his voice.

"The end of the world, Lex. The end of the world."

+++++

As glad as Lian had been to get away from all of the obnoxious party preparations, she sort of wished that they'd never left Metropolis. Smallville wasn't that bad of a place as far as she was concerned but the way everyone reacted to Lex had her bristling and bewildered by turns. They all seemed to blame Lex for things that he'd had nothing to do with.

Rather than deal with anyone else after the Kents, Lex had gone to his room to rest. Lian didn't blame him. If she'd been in his shoes she would have been driving out of Smallville at top speed. He had a lot more fortitude than she did. She settled into her room across the hall from Lex's, doing some computer searches to see if she could track down just exactly what Lionel had done in Smallville. The level of hatred Lex was getting made her think that it was a lot worse than she'd been led to believe.

"Kal!"

Lian was on her feet the instant Lex's shout echoed out into the hallway. He kept shouting, as if he was trying to get through to Kal. She ran into his room, slamming the door behind her. Lex was sitting on his bed with tear-stained cheeks. Instead of sadness or pain, only worry for Kal showed on his face.

She gestured trying to figure out what was going on. Lex shook his head at her as if there was no time to answer. A second later he had to pull the phone away from his ear as screams of agony echoed through it. Lian's jaw dropped. That was Kal's voice. Kal was screaming like someone was holding red-hot pokers to his chest, which was a memory she had hoped she never had to relive again. Sometimes being a superhero was really sucky.

Lex kept calling to Kal as the screams went on and on for entirely too long. Lian guarded Lex's door, her stomach in knots at how much pain Kal had to be going through. Eventually the screams shifted into groans and whimpers of pain accompanied by what sounded like faint scrambling noises.

"Kal!" Lex snapped as he switched his phone to speaker mode. "Kal, are you there?"

"Yeah," Kal said. His voice sounded painfully hoarse and he panted as he answered. "We're here."

"What the hell was that?" Lex asked. 

The tears might as well never have happened. Lex was long gone, leaving only Robin behind. Lian shivered a little at the transformation. For her the mask was a mask. Sometimes when she was around Lex and the rest of the Bat clan she wondered if they thought of themselves by their given names or by their superhero names. Right now, Lian would have bet that Lex thought of himself as Robin in the privacy of his mind.

"That was our destiny," Kal said slowly. His breathing was already easing back to normal. "Our enemy, our future, our doom, all at once. There's not a Goddamned thing you can do about it, Lex. I know you want to help. I know Mom and Dad and Chloe want to help. Hell, even Pete would probably help if he knew but there's nothing that any of you can do. We're going to suffer like that every day until we break."

"What happens when you break?" Lex asked. There was fear and worry in his eyes as he stared at the phone.

"The end of the world, Lex. The end of the world."

Lian's mouth dropped open but she couldn't come up with anything to say to that. From the expression on Lex's face, neither could he. The tired tone of Kal's voice made the words into a far more serious threat than the normal melodrama of the various villains that they'd faced. It took a second before Lex shook his head as if to clear it of everything other than Kal.

"Let us help," Lex said.

"You can't help, Lex," Kal said. "No one can. We just have to resist. The only thing you could do is offer moral support and frankly, calling you each night after our torture suffices. Look, I'm sure you got a billion questions but we're exhausted. Good luck dealing with the fuck-wits in Smallville."

He hung up before Lex could say anything else. Lex bit back a curse, shutting off his phone. No one was in the hallway when Lian check, which made her want to smack a few supposed adults around for neglecting to respond to a minor screaming, but it was probably better that way. She came and sat on the foot of Lex's bed.

"He knows I'm Lex Wayne," Lex said. "He said so before all of that happened."

"So he was following us around today," Lian said with a thoughtful nod. "I kind of thought so with those whooshes. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Lex declared. He scrubbed his cheeks to remove the last traces of the tears Lian knew he'd never admit to. "We have to figure out what's going on with him. Can you call Jai and ask him to run to Tim? We need to get that spaceship to Gotham as quickly as possible. It has to be tied into the change from Clark to Kal."

"Why do you think so?" Lian asked, even though she agreed and was already pulling out her phone.

"He disappeared and became Kal the day after they told him about the thing," Lex said.

Lian nodded. It only took about three seconds for Jai to appear once Lian buzzed him. She didn't bother explaining everything that had happened since it looked like Jai was still in the middle of fighting with his relatives over the party. Still, he agreed to make a quick side trip to Gotham to tell Tim to call Lex as soon as possible. He disappeared in his version of a whoosh and about thirty seconds later Lex's phone rang.

"Better than instant messaging sometimes," Lex quipped.

Lian grinned and nodded agreement. Lex's conversation with Tim was cryptic to the point of being incomprehensible to Lian. She wasn't sure if it was because they were talking over the phone, which could be overheard, or if they just did that sort of thing as a regular practice. Whichever it was, Lex and Tim finished their conversation within about a minute.

"All right," Lex said. He tapped his fingers against his knee as he thought. "They're going to send a truck to come and get the ship tonight. It should be out of Smallville and off to Gotham by mid-morning. Bruce will be doing the major portion of the analysis, with help from Tim and Alfred. They're hoping that I can visit after this party nonsense is over so that I can give them some help too."

"You got all of that into that short of a conversation?" Lian asked with a grin that made Lex roll his eyes.

"Yes, we did," Lex drawled at her. "As well as them worrying that I'm getting too emotionally attacked to Kal—"

"You are," Lian agreed.

"And that the Titans need to be very careful the next time we tangle with him as he might figure out my identity," Lex said as if she hadn't said anything. His irritation at her comment showed even if he didn't acknowledge it openly.

"He might," Lian agreed. "He's a lot smarter than I would have expected."

She sighed and flopped back across the foot of Lex's bed. It was a King size bed, which seemed a little stupid to her. What kid their age really needed a king bed? Lex snorted and gently booted her side as if to get her to leave.

"What happens if he really does go out of control?" Lian asked without budging. "We need to be prepared for it, Lex. Kal is so strong. He has so many gifts and no real weaknesses. Even together we can barely keep up with him. You know that he's not putting his all into it, too."

"I know," Lex said far too grimly. "He truly could destroy the world if he wanted to."

Lian stared at the ceiling while Lex stared out the window into the darkness outside. From the first time she'd interacted with Kal it had been obvious that he was holding himself back. His strength was unreal, beyond anything she'd ever seen. Even Wonder Woman didn't have his level of strength. He could fly faster than any Lantern, run nearly as fast as Jai and Iris, which was shocking. Those heat rays of his could destroy whole cities if he really cut loose.

"He could conquer the world," Lian murmured.

"And yet all he does is steal money and party," Lex agreed.

"I wonder if that's Clark's influence," Lian said. She turned her head to look at Lex. He didn't look back. "You know, the kind, gentle boy influencing the whatever-it-is that lives in that ring."

"If the ring is really the source of the problem," Lex agreed with an expression that made her think that he wasn't completely sure of it.

"Ring or ship," Lian mused. "Maybe the ring came from the ship? It's certainly not like Milagro's ring and I know that rock isn't a regular ruby. Cerdian already confirmed that."

"I don't know," Lex said, finally meeting her eyes. "But we're going to find out. I should-"

He tried to get off the bed and head for his laptop but Lian caught his arm, refusing to let him go. His whole body tensed at the contact, which was something that hadn't happened before they came to Smallville. Lian decided to write it off as memories of his father and the obvious abuse he'd gone through, so she didn't call him on it. Yet. If it continued once they left she would call him on it. They couldn't afford for their leader to push them all away like this.

"You should get some sleep," Lian said. "Dead serious, leader boy. You do no one any good if you're too tired to think and you know perfectly well that with all the stupid party preparations neither of us has slept well."

"If you think I'm going to be able to sleep well you're insane," Lex snarled at her.

"I could call Iris to cuddle you to sleep," Lian offer-threatened while raising an eyebrow at him to make him realize that she meant it.

"You wouldn't dare." Lex's eyes went so narrow that he looked like he was about to strike her dead. After a moment of stare-down and Lian not budging his eyes went wide and his eyebrows slid up his forehead. "No. Just no. No way. I am not cuddling with Iris. Don't you dare! I'd never get rid of her!"

"Bed," Lian declared. She stood and pointed at the bed imperiously.

Lex grumbled but he got into bed and glared at her. The squawk of indignation when Lian took his laptop was worth it. Lian raised her eyebrow at him again when Lex tried to get out of bed to take it back. She only had to reach for her phone before Lex pulled the covers back up.

"I hate you," Lex snarled.

"I know," Lian said. "I'm going to go to sleep too, you know. Lord knows that we've got a ton of stuff to take care of tomorrow and I really think we should be there when they come for the ship. I think Mr. Kent might blow a hole in someone's head if we're not."

"Good point," Lex sighed. "Still hate you."

"Good night," Lian sing-songed at Lex as she left. She laughed at the expletives that he spat at her.

The lights in Lex's room shut off as Lian opened her door. She nodded. Even if he had wanted to work, there was no doubt that Lex was exhausted. Lian was exhausted and she'd just been along for the ride today. Lex was the one who'd had to deal with everyone's attitudes and then hear Kal's torture. She put his laptop with hers and then climbed into bed. Hopefully tomorrow they would get another piece of the Kal puzzle.

And hopefully Clark wouldn't break before they could save him from the ring and Kal.

+++++

"This is terribly odd," Martha murmured to Lex as they watched Tim Wayne supervising the transfer of the ship from the storm cellar to the small moving truck that Tim had brought with him.

"Letting it go?" Lex asked.

"No, having a billionaire on the farm in jeans and a T-shirt," Martha replied.

Lex laughed a nearly silent laugh that made him look his age instead of older than his years. The baldness was deceptive, aging him years beyond what he truly was. She'd had Jonathan check last night after the kids had left. When she'd first seen Lex she'd assumed that he was at least nineteen or possibly twenty but he was only one year older than Clark. He was just barely sixteen years old.

"Tim's never been particularly comfortable as a billionaire," Lex said in a wry, confiding tone of voice. "He was adopted too. From what he's told me his parents were relatively rich, though not at Bruce Wayne's level of course. It's kind of nice."

"I'm sure it is," Martha agreed. "So many people don't understand adoption, the bonds that develop between the parents and children."

Lex blushed, smiling so shyly that Martha was tempted to hug him. "That's certainly been true in our cases. I'm glad that it was for Clark as well. From the little bits that I've seen, he seems to be a very nice young man."

"He's always been wonderful," Martha said, rubbing her stomach as her daughter kicked. It was timed perfectly with the pang in Martha's heart at how much she missed Clark. "He was rather shy, which probably is partially our fault. We were always so worried about his powers being discovered. Clark was our miracle child. Neither Jonathan nor I ever had any issues with Clark's powers but we knew what the rest of the world would think. Especially in Smallville there are huge prejudices against metas."

Lex nodded as if he completely understood that. Martha thought that he might. They both turned and watched as Tim finished securing the crate holding the spaceship and closed the door of the truck and locked it. She probably shouldn't feel like a weight had just been lifted but Martha did. The spaceship had been the great secret of their lives for so long, shared between Martha and Jonathan as they waited for Clark to mature enough that they could tell him where he came from. Now it wasn't their secret alone; it was shared and the relief was so much more than she'd expected.

"I wish we had a way to capture Kal," Lex murmured. "He's so much more powerful than any of us that we're constantly at a loss when dealing with him. Right now our best guess is that the ship is attacking him through the ring he wears. If we could just get it off I'm pretty sure that Clark would return."

Jonathan was talking with Tim, apparently about the farm and how the family was coping from the way that Jonathan gestured at the barn and the fields. Tim looked honestly interested in Jonathan's answers. The way Jonathan reacted made Martha think that he liked Tim against his better sense. She thought about it for a moment and then gestured for Lex to follow her. He looked curious as they went in the barn but he didn't ask the questions that were clearly hovering on his tongue.

"Clark is very powerful," Martha said as she pulled out _that_ drawer of Jonathan's tool chest. The little lead box felt so very heavy in her hand when she turned back to Lex. "Far more powerful than anyone else I've heard of but he's not all powerful, Lex. He does have a couple of weaknesses. He loves people with all his heart. If Clark cares about you he'll literally do anything for you, including risking his life to help or save you."

Lex's cheeks went blazingly red, which made Martha fight against a smile. She was rather glad that Jonathan wasn't there at the moment. Her husband was many things but tolerant about gays was not one of them. Instead of commenting on Lex's interest in Clark, Martha offered him the box. He took it and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Beyond his open heart," Martha said while Lex opened the box and revealed the chunk of green meteor rock, "his powers disappear when he's exposed to that rock. It's meteor rock from the meteor shower. Green meteor rock hurts him badly, Lex. There's a very good possibility that it could kill him if he's exposed to it for too long."

"You shouldn't…!" Lex said. 

He snapped the box shut and tried to push it back into her hands. Martha closed his hands around it, keeping his hands curled around the box by holding his hands with hers. He shivered as if he wasn't used to people touching him so freely. It made her sad but there wasn't anything she could do about it right now. All she could do was trust her instincts and the love that she saw in Lex's eyes for Clark. Lex so obviously wasn't like his father Lionel.

"Lex, take it," Martha said. "I trust you not to kill my son. I trust you to help him, to save him from whatever's happened to him. Bring him back to us, please. Do what you have to and save him."

Lex's breath caught in his chest. After a moment he swallowed hard and nodded. "I'll do my best, I swear."

"Good," Martha said. She patted his hands before releasing them. "Let's go see if Jonathan is done bragging about the farm. I'd like to get a nap before I start dinner."

Lex laughed and nodded. He carefully tucked the lead box into a pocket before they left the barn. Tim looked up and smiled to see them. Martha bit her lip against the urge to chuckle at the way Lex lit up to see his adopted father. Tim casually draped an arm around Lex's shoulders once they reached Jonathan and Tim's sides. Instead of starting or easing away, Lex leaned into Tim's side as if he desperately needed the physical reassurance but couldn't ask for it. A tiny wrinkle appeared between Tim's eyebrows but that was the only sign that he gave that Lex's response was unusual.

"Thank you for your help," Martha said to Tim. "We've tried so hard to find Clark and bring him home but we haven't succeeded."

"Not at all," Tim said. His arm tightened around Lex's shoulders as if the thought of Lex disappearing in the same way made him want to keep the young man safe. "I'm glad that we're able to help. I know how I would react if Lex disappeared."

"You should see him after kidnapping incidents," Lex said with a sly grin that made Tim's cheeks color.

"That's common?" Jonathan asked in his most appalled tone of voice.

"It goes along with the Wayne name," Tim said and grimaced. "I was kidnapped quite often when I was younger. I'm afraid that Lex has been kidnapped several times as well. My adopted father Bruce does his best to ensure that the security around us is sufficient without being smothering but sometimes there are lapses."

"Hasn't happened for a couple of years," Lex reassured them. He looked Martha square in the eyes. Once again he looked like he was years older than his actual age. "Thank you so much for trusting us. I promise that we'll do everything in our power to bring Clark home to you again."

"That's all that we can ask," Martha said. "Take care of yourselves and be careful. Clark can get rather wild when he's frightened."

Lex nodded seriously. Tim gave Lex's shoulders another squeeze before shaking both of their hands. They left, Tim apparently to go back to Gotham with the ship and Lex going back to the mansion to prepare for the party. Martha pulled Jonathan inside, smiling away his concern.

"I think it will be okay," Martha said as he helped her lie down for a nap on the couch. "Lex… Lex is a very bright young man. He'll do everything he can to help Clark."

"You really think that we can trust him?" Jonathan asked. He was obviously thinking of Lex's birth father Lionel rather than his adopted father Tim.

"I do," Martha said. She held his hand to keep him from leaving immediately. "I gave Lex the box, Jon. He tried to give it back to me. He cares about Clark, more than he's willing to admit. I don't think he has many friends besides Lian."

Jonathan frowned, clearly worried about Clark's weakness being revealed to an outsider, but after they'd given away the spaceship and Clark had gone so out of control, Martha didn't see much choice. They needed to stop Clark's rampage and the green meteor rock was the only way to do it. She squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"Get some rest," Jonathan said.

"Make sure to wake me up in time to make dinner," Martha told him.

He grinned impishly, which made her huff at him. His kiss on her cheek didn't reassure Martha. No matter how much he thought she should rest, Martha had no intention of eating grilled cheese sandwiches and canned soup another night. Having a good dinner to eat would be well worth the exhaustion of preparing it.

"Sleep."

"Shoo," Martha chuckled.

Once he headed back outside Martha settled down to rest. Lex looked like their best chance of getting Clark back. Hopefully her trust in him wouldn't be abused. She didn't think that it would. Lex so clearly needed to be trusted and loved. Jonathan might not accept that in Lex, especially directed towards Clark, but Martha would. The two boys were very likely just what the other needed, if only Clark's rampage could be stopped.

+++++

"That…"

Bruce's voice trailed off as he stared at the ship. Tim nodded agreement with the shock and surprise just barely evident in Bruce's pointedly fixed gaze. Somehow even with all the adventures that they'd both had with the League, finding a toddler-sized spaceship in Smallville, Kansas seemed beyond incredible.

Jason was leaning on the far side of the crate. It had yet to be fully collapsed, giving him an excellent platform for lounging. His expression and posture didn't convey a lounge. If anything he looked as though he wanted to destroy the ship, as if it was an affront to his admittedly warped sensibilities. Tim wondered personally what exactly they were supposed to do with the ship. It looked as though it was sealed tight.

"How are we going to do this, Father?" Damian asked from his place by the computers.

"Mmm."

Tim exchanged an amused look with Jason at the grunt that answered Damian's question. The way Damian's eyes narrowed made Tim want to smirk, even though he agreed with Damian's irritation at Bruce's lack of communication. They finished liberating the ship from it's crate and moved it to the laboratory area, placing it in the center where everyone would be able to work with it with relative ease. Given the importance of the ship to dealing with Kal and Lex's obvious attachment to Kal, the entire Bat family would inevitably work together on it.

Somewhat later Tim revised the 'together' part of his assessment with more than a little bit of irritation.

There were times when he wished that he had never figured out who Batman and Robin were. Listening to Jason and Damian arguing over who got to use which tool first was definitely one of those times. Steph was there with Barbara, working the scanners as though they were one person. Both of their shoulders were so tense that they looked as though they were hunched in on themselves.

Only Bruce looked as though nothing was going on. He worked calmly from a rolling office chair, minutely examining every inch of the ship under a mobile microscope. As he moved Jason and Damian automatically got out of his way, though their bickering continued unabated.

"I'm going upstairs," Tim announced.

"Done?" Bruce asked, packing more disapproval into that one word than most people could put into an entire lecture.

"I'll be back when the rest of you take a break," Tim said. "Too many cooks, you know."

Bruce's lips quirked in one of his microsecond smiles. He nodded and went back to his examination. Steph looked curious as he passed by so Tim patted her shoulder and jerked his chin at Damian and Jason. She snickered and nodded agreement.

"Done so soon, Master Timothy?" Alfred asked as he slowly, far too slowly, puttered around the kitchen attempting to put things away.

"Alfred, you don't have to do that," Tim said as he took the dishes and put them away for him. "You're retired."

"I find it healthful to stay busy, Master Timothy," Alfred said.

"There's busy and then there's Bruce," Tim said in an unintentionally snarky tone of voice.

Alfred's chuckle made Tim duck his head as if he was that thirteen-year-old boy from so long ago. Tim made some tea for the two of them and then settled down at the kitchen table with Alfred. It felt good to have Alfred back in the Manor but he couldn't do what he used to. From the look on Alfred's face as he sipped his tea, he found aging to be as frustrating as Bruce did.

"Why are you up in the kitchen rather than in the labs, Master Timothy?" Alfred asked.

"Too many cooks in that particular kitchen, Alfred," Tim said with a wry shrug that earned one of Alfred's penetrating looks and amused snorts. "I think I'll wait until the others have done their scans and examinations and then help Bruce collate the results. We'll figure this out."

"Quite so, Master Timothy," Alfred said. His calm nod conveyed complete confidence in their ability to figure the ship out. "Should I have the staff make a buffet dinner?"

"That's perfect," Tim said. "I doubt that we'll all be up to eat together no matter what happens on the ship."

Tim went to check on the others and tell them about Alfred's plans for dinner. He had to wonder how much longer Alfred would be with them. That he was still around to take care of what was now four generations of Bats and Robins at eighty-one was something of a miracle. Damian was the only one that picked up on Tim's worries for Alfred. He frowned fiercely enough that Tim shrugged.

"Alfred was putting dishes away," Tim said very quietly.

"Ah." Damian nodded and set a wary hand on Tim's shoulder to squeeze it gently.

Tim smiled back at him and returned to the Manor over their heads. For the next several days it felt like he was stuck in a holding pattern while the others battered their heads against the metaphorical and literal wall of the spaceship. Very little of their equipment had any effect on the ship. Nothing cut it, nothing burnt it, and nothing that they could find would open it up. Bruce methodically worked his way through every earthly tool that they could get their hands on and then set to work on any unearthly tools that they could get through the League. 

His dogged determination drove the others away fairly rapidly. Jason was the first to go after a shouting match with Bruce where Bruce simply ignored everything that Jason said and continued on working as if Jason wasn't there. Damian went next, drawn away by an emergency in his chosen territory that was a fairly poor screen for his tremendous frustration with both the ship and Bruce's attitude. Barbara and Steph went next, both returning to their duties with relatively clear conscience once they'd worked through everything that they could think of. 

Tim saw them all off and then sighed as he headed back down the stairs to the Cave. Bruce was studying the computer with his hands pressed together in front of his lips like a miniature church steeple. Rather than approach and demand information on whatever it was that had Bruce brooding like the young Batman that Tim remembered as a child, Tim came over and stood next to Bruce. The results on the screen were confusing until Tim traced the timeline.

"The same time each night," Tim murmured while tapping a spike in power that they'd detected every night.

"Yes," Bruce growled in the darkest Bat voice that Tim had heard from him in a long while.

Tim frowned, comparing that time with other events that he knew happened at particular times. He called up Lex's cell phone records, drawing in a sharp breath as he realized that the power surges in the ship matched with the middle of the phone calls between Kal and Lex.

"The ship's involved with Kal's nightly torture," Tim said.

Bruce only nodded, still staring at the screen's slowly fluctuating readings.

"It's no wonder that you drove the others away," Tim sighed. Bruce's lips quirked in a tiny smile of victory that made Tim chuckle and shake his head. "There's more, isn't there?"

" _Look at the data, Tim,_ " Bruce said.

The sheer intensity in his voice made Tim shiver in the same way he had the first time he saw Batman take a criminal down in Crime Alley. Tim turned back to the monitors, pulled up a second chair and worked through the data. It took him a long while to see what Bruce had already seen, nearly three hours of work.

"This isn't the source of the power surges," Tim breathed once the pattern jumped out at him. "This is just a terminal!"

"Exactly," Bruce growled. He hadn't moved other than to shift his apparently aching knees the entire time Tim worked. "Check the power spikes against the global map."

Tim did, hissing as he realized that Kal's nightly tortures had occurred all over the world, on every single continent including Antarctica. It literally didn't matter where Kal went. He was always in range of the system behind the spaceship because the larger system was spread over the entire globe. Bruce nodded encouragement as Tim frowned and set to work checking historical data that Bruce hadn't brought up yet.

Over the course of the next forty-eight hours food appeared at his elbow and Steph came to try and force Tim to sleep twice. He didn't let her win. This was too important. Bruce's hand on his shoulder finally pulled Tim back from the computers and into the real world of the Cave. Everyone, including Lex and his Titans, were there. Bruce patted Tim's shoulder as he rubbed his eyes to try and stop their burning.

"What do you have?" Lex asked. The tension and worry was clear in his voice, which was so snappish that he nearly sounded like Damian on a bad day.

"We haven't broken into the ship yet," Bruce said, "but we don't really need to. It's not the source of the problem. It's much bigger than we thought."

"Bigger?" Myrina asked with confusion on her face. "Bigger how?"

"I spent the last two days tracking down the rest of the system that this spaceship is connected to," Tim said. "It took quite a lot. I think I've used every single satellite and called in nearly every favor I was owed to do it."

He called up the global map, highlighting the spaceship's support locations in green. Lex whispered a curse that was nearly drowned out by Jason's more vocal cursing and Steph's gasp of horror. Every continent had several terminals on them. They were connected by a web of power that it had taken Zatanna and Dr Fate to isolate and identify.

"It looks like the central processing unit for the system is in Smallville, Kansas," Tim said with a tired sigh. "I have no idea where in Smallville. We weren't able to narrow it down that far."

"We'll find it," Bruce declared. "We've already got people searching the area to find any sign of the CPU. It won't be long before we succeed."

"What will that mean for Kal?" Lex asked. "It's getting harder for him to resist. He said last night that it was as though the ship was getting stronger. It certainly seems as though the… episodes are lasting longer."

"Once we find the CPU we should be able to figure out what's going on with it," Bruce said. "I have no doubt that we'll be able to break the code once we have access to the master CPU."

"And if that fails we can always blow the damned thing up," Jason said with a grim chuckle that Tim didn't share.

He wasn't sure that explosives would be a good idea. Given the amount of power that the ship could call on, attempting to destroy it might set off a chain reaction that caused all the other terminals to explode. If the power released was at all proportional to the amount of power the system could control, there might be very little left alive on the planet afterwards.

"Don't do anything abrupt," Lex said. "I'm going to try and talk Kal into turning himself in again tonight. If that doesn't work, we'll capture him and take that ring off. I'm pretty sure that it's another remote for the system you've found."

"Hope you're right about that, Baldy," Jason murmured just loud enough for them all to hear it. "Hate to have you take off his last line of defense by accident."

+++++

"This is insanity," Myrina said to Lex.

"So true," Lex sighed.

The ballroom was filled with people, all of them ostensibly there to see Myrina and meet her. People wanting to talk to her had immediately swamped Diana. She was holding what amounted to court over by the buffet table. Steve Rogers, her husband, lover, mate, whatever Amazons called men that they'd been with for sixty-some years and had somehow arranged to give immortality to, stood by her side with such a proud expression that Lex thought Steve might explode any second from sheer love for Diana.

The rest of the crowd circulated, gossiping and watching for trouble in equal measure. Approximately half of the crowd was superheroes in their other identities. The other half was society people or discrete reliable reporters who'd managed to finagle an invitation to the party.

"I really thought we'd end up with about twenty-five people, not three hundred and fifty," Lex said. "I didn't intend for this to be this much of a circus."

"Hmph. I still have not forgiven you for leaving me in charge when you came here," Myrina growled at him.

"How many time do I have to say I'm sorry?" Lex asked, honestly curious about the answer. In the last two weeks he'd said it so many times that he would have thought that the words were worn out. "I didn't expect things to go like that."

"Grape Jell-O, Alexander," Myrina growled at him.

He winced and looked around for Sara. There was no way that he was going to have the Jell-O discussion with Myrina again. Lex was grateful that he'd missed the entire mess, though from the bills that had shown up after the Tower had been cleaned of all the evidence it must have been a truly spectacular prank. Keeping Jai, Milagro and Cerdian from getting bored had definitely moved up a notch on the list of things to do.

"I see some guy over there with his hand on Sara's hip," Lex commented as if he was simply surprised.

Myrina's head whipped around and she was gone the instant she spotted Sara across the crowded room. The crowd of party goers got out of her way, instinctively giving way to the pissed off Amazon in full formal Grecian attire. Still, by the time Myrina got to Sara's side the pushy man was nursing a sprained wrist and Sara was unharmed. Irritated but completely unharmed.

"Never mess with the tiny blond," Lex murmured in amusement.

"What?" Lian slipped up next to him and then grinned at Sara and Myrina together. "They are so cute. Has either of them admitted that they're dating?"

"Not yet," Lex laughed. The crowd swirled and blocked their view of everything other than the top of Myrina's head. "Hopefully sometime soon. I expect Sara will just tell Myrina eventually."

They shared a grin before Lex wandered off towards one of the main doors. It was getting close to Kal's normal torture times and Lex wanted to call him before it happened. Getting away from the party wasn't the easiest thing in the world. Bruce stopped him at one point; doing his aging Brucie act in such a convincing way that he was fairly certain the reporters would be talking about Bruce having dementia again.

Tim stopped him for an introduction to a socialite's daughter, who looked as though she wanted to kill her mother for putting her up to it. For her sake, and because it amused him to, Lex pretended to be as gay as possible. The daughter ended up smirking and the mother dismayed. Tim's lips were twitching with amusement when Lex excused himself to go and talk to 'that darling little serving boy over by the door'. He actually managed to make it to the door, snagging Jeff Palmer and tugging him towards the door.

"Save me," Lex murmured to him. "I've got socialites hunting me to marry their daughters."

"You have got to be kidding me," Jeff groaned.

"Fifty bucks free and clear if you just step outside with me," Lex offered.

"Deal," Jeff said instantly.

They left, dodged into another room and Jeff promptly held out his hand with a grin. Lex laughed quietly and gave him a fifty, adding a twenty on the top of it. Jeff raised an eyebrow in question. Before explaining, Lex looked out the door and grinned that no one was there.

"The twenty is if you'll muss yourself up a little before you go back in," Lex said. "You know, in five minutes or so."

"It's no wonder you have a terrible reputation," Jeff said. He rumpled his hair and messed up his tie before checking his watch.

"No, that's my birth father's fault," Lex sighed. "Thanks. Hopefully that'll get the daughters off of my case."

"Just means they'll be sending the sons after you," Jeff commented. He settled into one of the chairs and tucked the money into his pocket.

"Them I can hit," Lex quipped as he slipped out the door and hurried for the stairs to the next floor.

He had to slip into various rooms to avoid partygoers who'd wandered away from the party twice. Once he hid to avoid some of the staff that had showed the most hatred towards him. Eventually he made it to his rooms and slipped inside. There were only a couple of minutes before Kal's torture so Lex immediately pulled out his phone and dialed.

"Hey," Kal said in something very close to Clark's cheerful tones. "Thought you wouldn't call what with the big party. They serving Jell-O?"

"Yuck it up," Lex growled as he prowled over to the window that overlooked the garden. "Myrina still hasn't shut up about that."

"Well, that much Jell-O must have been a sight," Kal laughed. "I can't believe your friends filled the pool with Jell-O."

It sounded like he was outside somewhere rural. Lex could hear birds singing in the background but no cars or other mechanical noises. Lex slipped inside of the curtains and let them block out the light of the room. The moonlit garden outside sprang into view once the light stopped turning the window into a mirror. To his surprise, Myrina and Sara were outside, walking through the garden together.

"Huh," Lex grunted.

"What?" Kal asked.

"Oh, Myrina and Sara have gone out into the garden together," Lex said. 

He still wasn't sure if Kal had figured out that Lex was Robin. So far they were dancing around it, Lex creating plausible explanations for his association with Myrina and Kal conspicuously not asking certain very obvious questions. It wasn't optimal but at this point Lex didn't feel that he could trust Kal with his secret identity. Hopefully once they freed him it would be okay but not before that.

"Still think I need to smack that bitch," Kal grumbled.

"Oh, oh wow," Lex murmured. "Now, I didn't expect Sara to be the one to start things."

"What?" Kal asked much more cheerfully. "What's happening?"

"Ah, let's just say that you're missing a seriously nice view," Lex chuckled. "Huh, I never would have picked Sara as the top. Or Myrina as the bottom."

Outside Sara had pushed Myrina back onto one of the benches before firmly, decisively, kissing her. Myrina's hands had already curled around Sara's back to pull her into her lap. Lex knew with every fiber of his being that he needed to step away from the window and not watch but his feet weren't exactly cooperating with him. Reminding himself of Myrina's strength didn't work any better than imaging just how pissed off Sara would be if they knew he'd watched this.

"No. Way!" Kal laughed.

Kal drew a sharp breath, ripping Lex's attention away from the window better than anything else could have. Lex slipped out from behind the curtains to sit on the end of his bed. As Kal panted over the phone, Lex waited and watched the clock. They both knew exactly what was going to happen. Thirty-seven seconds after the first gasp Kal started to scream. The screams and crackles of energy lasted for three minutes, seventeen seconds before they rapidly subsided. Lex heard Kal scrambling at something, probably the phone and then twenty-one seconds after that Kal abruptly sighed in relief. It took another two minutes, six seconds for him to speak.

"Fuck."

"That lasted eleven seconds longer," Lex reported. "Every night it's getting eleven seconds longer, Kal.

"Damn it," Kal sighed. "Fucking hell. I don't think I can survive a full five minutes, Lex. It's getting to the point that I'm almost ready to give up. I barely held on tonight. Five minutes is going to destroy me."

"Don't give up," Lex said. "We still have a week or more before it hits five minutes."

"No, less than four days," Kal corrected him. "You gotta count all of it, including the ending. Three days and then it'll be five minutes total, Lex."

"Fuck," Lex growled. "Please give yourself up to the Titans, Kal. Please. We can do so much more if we can actually work with you instead of against you."

Kal sighed which prompted Lex to sigh too. Iris slipped into his room, her eyes so wide that Lex raised an eyebrow at her. She ran over to the window and peered outside, giggling. A moment later Jai zipped inside, his pants tented out and a huge grin on his face. Lex sighed and shook his head at them both.

"Myrina and Sara are making out in the garden!" Jai said in his 'that is so cool' voice.

"Still?" Kal snickered into Lex's ear.

"Iris, you might want to warn them that they're visible from the windows," Lex commented. "Diana might be upset about this."

Iris squeaked and then zipped from the room. Jai made a horrified noise and zoomed out as well, presumably to warn Lian and Cerdian. A moment later Milagro poked her head into the room, scowling ferociously as her older brother Jamie grabbed her shoulder.

"Stop that! I was looking for Lex," Milagro snarled at him.

"You're not supposed to be upstairs," Jamie huffed at her.

"Myrina and Sara?" Lex said a little louder than normal to get through their brewing argument.

"Yes," Milagro and Jamie said at once. They glared at each other as if offended that the other answered the question.

"Already know," Lex said. "Go on, I'll be back downstairs in a minute."

"You heard him," Jamie said. 

He grabbed Milagro's wrist and dragged her away as if worried that Lex was going to ravish her in the hallway. Milagro spluttered and cursed in Spanish the entire way. Kal laughed and laughed in Lex's ear, sounding as if he was exhausted but highly amused. Lex flopped back on his bed and rubbed his forehead.

"Are you _sure_ you won't switch places with me?" Lex asked just to make Kal laugh harder.

"Not for a hundred billion trillion dollars," Kal snickered. "Especially not while that party's still going on. Sounds like a total madhouse."

"It so is," Lex sighed. "One that I really should get back to. You going to be okay?"

"For another three days, yeah," Kal said. "Not sure about after that but for now, yeah. Go on. Deal with the drama."

Kal hung up without saying goodbye, which was normal for him. Lex suspected that he would fall asleep where he lay for a while. If it weren't for the knowledge that virtually nothing on the planet could harm Kal, Lex would worry about him being attacked. He still worried but not about random muggings.

"The end of the world," Lex sighed as he got up and headed back downstairs. "I have three days before the end of the world."

When he got back downstairs Myrina and Sara were facing off against Diana and Steve in the hallway. They were too far away for him to hear anything more than the murmur of their voices. Myrina looked like she was on the verge of a heart attack while Sara was glaring up at Diana defiantly. Steve stood behind Diana with his hand over his mouth as if he was trying to hide a grin. Diana said something and made that little grave nod of her head that always reminded Lex that she was royalty. Instead of exploding into anger, Sara gasped and lit up with delight. Myrina stared at Diana in shock.

"Really?" Sara squeaked so loudly that Lex could hear her from where he stood watching. "Themysciria? For real?" 

Steve laughed behind Diana as Diana smiled kindly and nodded. Lex shook his head and went back to the party. He'd hear the full story soon enough he knew. Sara was hugging Myrina when he glanced back at the four of them. Myrina met his eyes with an expression that mingled pride and loss so maybe what he'd not quite overheard was Sara getting the opportunity to study on Themysciria for a year or so.

Once inside the ballroom again Lex looked for Lian. She was over by the buffet table, trying to keep Iris and Jai from eating everything on it by themselves. Lex made his way over to her side. It took about half an hour to make it there because of all the conversations he got sucked into. Once there, Lex nudged Lian and leaned close to whisper in her ear.

"We need to act tomorrow," Lex told her. "There's no more time."

"Got it," Lian said. She frowned but that was it.

Lex moved away again, looking for Tim so that he could warn his family that the Titans would be going after Kal tomorrow. As he worked his way across the ballroom Lex couldn't help but contrast his current life with the one he'd had as Lionel's son. Lionel would have been working the party too, looking for every opportunity to gather information and power over the people there. Instead, Lex realized with an inward start, he was spending all his time worrying about how to protect and care for the people around him.

'I really am a Wayne,' Lex thought with awe. After the last couple of weeks dealing with the attitudes towards him in Smallville, Lex had had his moments of doubt.

"I am Lex Wayne," Lex murmured as he finally located Tim talking with Steph and Bruce in a quieter corner of the room. "No matter what anyone thinks, this is my real family and who I really am."

"What's up?" Tim asked. He looped a protective arm around Lex's shoulder.

"Tomorrow," Lex replied. "We're going to have to go after Kal tomorrow. There's no more time."

"We'll all be ready," Bruce said in his Batman growl. "For whatever happens."

+++++

Sometimes it felt like he was stuck in a room watching TV. Clark didn't really mind it too much anymore, not with the alternative. Between Kal and Clark they'd created a sort of room in their head so that Clark didn't feel so utterly disembodied all the time. He had a lounge chair, the biggest, cushiest chair in the world. There was a big screen that showed whatever Kal was looking at, complete with metaphorical speakers that let Clark hear everything that Kal could hear.

It was kind of cool in a way. Kal would look at the world and notice one set of things but Clark could look, within the limits of Kal's field of vision, and notice completely different things. Same for their hearing. Kal wasn't the one who listened constantly to Lex's heartbeat. That was Clark. He didn't mind Kal's teasing on that because Kal had been the one to start doing it when they thought Lex was a girl named Lexi.

Still, he'd much rather be able to interact with the world again. There were times that he did even now. They merged the most completely when Jor-El was torturing them. That was bad but at least together they were able to hold Jor-El off, at least for a while longer. The second best times were when they were eating. Clark and Kal were nearly one when they got to enjoy pie or a burger or whatever. The third was sex, not that Clark was terribly pleased about those times. Kal might be perfectly happy to have sex more or less randomly but Clark still thought that it was better to have a long-term relationship with one person than to flit from person to person with no committments.

They both agreed on wanting Lex for any long term relationship, not that either of them thought they'd get him.

"Another 10K should about do it," Kal murmured as they left their Metropolis apartment.

"Do we really need that much money?" Clark asked. "I mean, it's not like we have any worries about bills or anything. Not to mention that we probably won't need more than another couple of days the way things are going."

"It'll cut down on the number of runs we have to make," Kal replied as he checked for Titans outside the building. All clear. "They're getting way too intent on catching us. I still think Lex might come up with something."

"I hope he does but I don't see what he can do," Clark sighed. "You sure we shouldn't trust the Titans? They certainly have the power to help, don't you think?"

"You're the one worried about crushing someone during our nightly torture," Kal countered.

Clark just sighed in response. He was worried about it. The pain was getting way too bad and there was no way that anyone would be able to withstand one of his punches. From the battles they'd had against Myrina, he thought even Amazons would be outclassed. She was strong and tough but she wasn't invulnerable like he was. Even with armor on, Clark was pretty sure that Myrina wouldn't be able to survive one of his punches. The others would be even less likely to survive. It was scary and intimidating but there was nothing that either of them could do about it.

The robbery went perfectly. Kal disabled the cameras on the ATMs, ripped them open and stole the cash with ease. Their backpack was just the right size to hold the money. Clark kept Kal from grabbing any dye packs, spotting them with ease after this long. They zipped the backpack and then ran away before the alarms began to sound. Five ATMs broken into and robbed in less than two seconds: it wasn't a record for the two of them but it did come close.

They ran back to Metropolis, and to Clark's not so secret amusement, deposited the money they'd just stolen in their bank account there. The bank was mob owned and controlled so it was relatively safe for stolen cash. The cashier didn't even blink at a teenager deposting $11,500 in small bills. It still amused Clark that they put the money they stole from one bank straight back into another bank. As they headed out of the bank Kal looked up at the sky and sighed. Midmorning of their third to last day of freedom was way too gray and dark as far as Clark was concerned. Kal agreed silently, heading up the street at a slow strut.

Lex's heart rate abruptly went through the roof.

"Something's up," Clark said to Kal.

"What?" Kal asked.

As Clark brought Lex's heart rate to Kal's attention they turned and found their face directly in the way of Myrina's fist. She hit Kal hard enough to knock them across the suspiciously empty street and into the building across the way. Kal snarled and got up as Clark tried to home in on Lex's heartbeat.

The Titans were there, all but Aqualad. Worse, Clark's perception of their hearing said that Lex was too. He scanned Kal's field of vision, and then started as he realized that Robin had Lex's heartbeat.

"Kal!" Robin said just a bit too urgently for his normal extreme calm. "Don't fight us. We don't want to hurt you."

"Could have fooled me," Kal snarled.

"Lex is Robin!" Clark squawked. He made Kal pay attention to the heartbeat and Kal started cursing.

Kal turned to run rather than deal with the Titans and the sudden realization that Lex had been behind all of the attempts to bring them in. He got one step before Lian's arrows flew at them, exploding long before the arrow got close to Kal and Clark. A cloud of sparkling green crystals made Kal and Clark shout in agony as the kryptonite dust drained his powers.

"No!" Clark yelled with their voice. "Don't!"

The girl Green Lantern grabbed him with her ring. For the first time it felt almost like kryptonite, weakening him even further. As Kal slowly collapsed under the onslaught, Impulse and Kid Flash zipped over faster than Clark and Kal could perceive anymore. They had ropes that had a coating of kryptonite on them. Kal gasped for air but it was Clark who screamed in agony. They struggled for a few moments that felt like an eternity before collapsing into shuddering semi-consciousness.

Clark could hear Lex in Robin's voice now. The others' voices were indistinct rumbles that made no sense but Lex's voice came through the pain and nausea that the kryptonite caused. He could hear worry in Lex's voice, along with a cold urgency that didn't match with the warmth that Lex had always displayed towards them. It was Robin's voice, not Lex's, for all that they were the same person.

"Hurry," Robin snapped. "We need to get him back to the tower. There's no telling how long this will work."

"Kill… us," Clark gasped with Kal's help.

"We're not going to kill you, Kal," Robin said, this time sounding a little horrified.

"No… are… killing… us!" Kal moaned.

None of the Titans answered that but their actions were much more urgent. Clark had no idea what sort of vehicle he was loaded into but pretty soon they were moving. Someone else drove. Myrina held him down and Lex was there, checking his vital signs and cursing as Clark and Kal got weaker by the moment. The kryptonite dust was pretty much gone, wiped away by Lex during the transit, but the ropes held more than enough kryptonite to steal what little strength he had.

"This isn't good," Lex murmured.

"It is killing him," Myrina agreed. "I can feel him weakening, Robin."

"I know, I know!" Lex snapped at her. "We're almost there. We need to get him to Aqualad right away."

"I will carry him," Myrina declared in a tone that challenged anyone to disagree with her. "Make sure the doors are open for us."

"On it," Kid Flash said.

Clark helped Kal keep from throwing up when Myrina scooped them up and started running into the Titan's tower. Their sight and hearing were so screwed up from the kryptonite ropes that neither of them had any idea where they were taken. The room they ended up in was heavily armored though nowhere near armored enough to handle their strength if they were free.

"Aqualad!" Robin snapped.

"Set him down," Aqualad said.

"Let… us… go!" Clark begged.

Myrina held them with a firm grip on Clark and Kal's shoulders. Aqualad put his hands on Kal and Clark's head while whispering something under his breath. Magic swept over them and suddenly Kal faded out of Clark's mind. It was like he was going to sleep while Clark stayed awake. Clark panted, staring at Aqualad in horror.

"No, no, no, no, no," Clark whispered as they removed the ropes.

It was such a huge relief to get the ropes off that he barely noticed Myrina's fingers on the red kryptonite ring.

"No!" Clark shouted.

The ring slipped off and suddenly Jor-El was there in his head. Clark screamed as his scar blazed as Jor-El's power ripped into his body and mind. There were voices shouting around him and Myrina's hands trying to hold him down but that was so far away compared to the horror of trying to fight Jor-El without Kal's fiery rage to support him.

"Kal!" Lex shouted.

"No! Give it back!" Clark screamed. "I, I, I, I can't! No, no, no, no!"

He flung Myrina off as another blaze of Jor-El's power surged through his mind. The ropes and the Lantern's altered grip were back, draining his powers away. It did nothing to block Jor-El. Clark sobbed at the combination of kryptonite with Jor-El, feeling his grip on sanity eroding by the second.

"Give me the damned ring!" Lex shouted right next to Clark's ear.

Someone or something fumbled around his hand, trying to put the ring on while Clark's body convulsed and shuddered. He could smell burning which meant that his scar had destroyed another shirt. Suddenly the blessed, damning effect of the red kryptonite swept over him, blocking Jor-El from his mind. Kal still wasn't there but it was easier, especially once his body's convulsions stilled. They cautiously took off the ropes and the Lantern stopped holding him down.

"Don't," Clark whimpered at them as he slowly curled into a ball. "Don't take them away. Need them."

"Who do you need?" Lex asked so gently that it made Clark cry.

"Kal, ring," Clark panted. "Need them. Not strong enough alone. Need them…"

"Fuck," Lex sighed.

Lex's fingers ran through Clark's hair. Aqualad whispered something. A moment later Kal slowly woke back up, though he was in the background and Clark was in the foreground the way things used to be before the red K ring. Lex's fingers ghosted over Clark's shoulders, exerting a tiny bit of pressure. Clark allowed himself to be rolled over so that they could see the scar on his chest.

"The scar is how the ship attacks you," Lex said sadly. "Not the ring."

"Yes," Clark sighed. "I wouldn't do what he wanted and he branded me. The ring protects me, blocks his influence from my mind most of the time."

"And Kal?" Lex asked.

Clark looked at Lex, seeing worry in the set of his lips, determination in the scowl that wasn't quite hidden by his cowl. Arsenal was standing behind him with her hands pressed against her mouth. Kid Flash stood next to her, one arm around her shoulders to comfort her. Aqualad was pressed up next to Impulse and Myrina knelt next to Clark and Lex with the Lantern standing behind her shaking like a leaf.

"Kal is me," Clark admitted tiredly. "He's not something different, just the more forceful part of my personality. He's as much me as I am. Mom and Dad were afraid of Kal so I forced him down. The ring brings him out, gives him control of our body but we're both here. We're the same person, just different aspects. He's better at dealing with Jor-El than I am. This whole situation made us sort of separate but we're still the same person."

"Fuck."

Lex sat down next to Clark and pushed his cowl back. The others gasped, especially Arsenal. Clark and Kal didn't even blink. Kal was getting stronger as Aqualad's spell faded away. It felt good to let Kal take the fore. Clark's armchair was still there. It felt a lot less real as he settled into it but that was okay. He was way too tired to care if their little mental room felt real or not.

"Tried to tell you that you couldn't help," Kal said.

"And now you're Kal again," Lex commented.

"Yup." Kal groaned as he sat up and rubbed their chest. "Clark's exhausted. You're stuck with me for a while. We wondered about you. Figured you had to be involved with the Titans. Just didn't think you were Robin. So now what? You caught us. What are you going to do now?"

Clark studied the others as Kal gazed at them one by one. Arsenal flinched away from their gaze. Kid Flash looked utterly ashamed. Impulse wouldn't meet their eyes. Neither would Aqualad who looked like he wanted to go hide somewhere. The Lantern mouthed 'sorry' at him. Myrina was frowning at them as if she couldn't quite figure the two of them out but the hostility that had been there before was gone, replaced by compassion.

Lex met their eyes squarely. A little frown line had settled in between his pale eyebrows. He was a bit too pale and his fingers were shaking slightly. When he lifted a hand and reached out to them, Kal didn't flinch until Lex's gloved fingertip settled on their scar. It hurt a little bit, then more as Lex gently traced the edges of the brand.

"Hurts, Lex," Kal said as he caught Lex's wrist. "You didn't answer our question. What now?"

"Now?" Lex said in a tone that was anything but a question. "Now we get rid of that scar and save you from your 'destiny'. That's what we do."

+++++

"Now?" Lex said with every bit of the determination he felt. "Now we get rid of that scar and save you from your 'destiny'. That's what we do."

Kal's fingers tightened on Lex's wrist for a moment before he let go. He cocked his head at Lex as if unsure whether Lex was sane or not. Given what they'd just seen Lex thought he might have a point. None of them had expected that Kal was simply another aspect of Clark's personality or that the scar was the true source of Jor-El's influence over him.

"You have any ideas on how to get rid of this thing?" Kal asked. He casually ripped the remnants of his shirt off and tossed it aside. "Nothing we've ever tried other than the ring has worked."

"You need allies," Myrina declared. "What you've attempted is limited by your knowledge and what you have access to. Between us, we have a great deal more that could be used to free you from this torture."

"Agreed," Lex said. "Kal, we have so much more that can help you. Between us we have access to the latest technology, the best detectives on the planet, magic, godly powers through Myrina's people, the power of the Green Lanterns and even simple friendship. You don't have to fight this alone. Let us help!"

Kal huffed a breath that could have been a sigh but which seemed more like a suppressed groan. His expression was all Clark as he stared at Lex. It was easy to see the boy who'd had few friends because of the incredible secret he'd been hiding all of these years. When Lex reached out to put his hand on Kal's shoulder he jerked away.

"You don't even know what I am," Kal said in Clark's voice. "I'm not human. I'm an alien."

"So what?" Milagro said scornfully enough that Kal bristled at her. "I am a Green Lantern, Kal. I work with aliens all the time. You are not unique at all."

"Sort of am," Kal grumbled at her despite the faint blush on his cheeks. "As far as I know I'm the last member of my race left."

"Irrelevant," Milagro said dismissively enough that Lex glared at her.

Kal growled a lot louder as he stood up. "What's relevant is that we're too fucking strong. If you're close during one of our torture sessions you'll be crushed. Don't deny it. We know your ring can't protect you from our full strength."

"The ropes helped, right?" Cerdian asked.

"No, they hurt like hell and made it harder to resist," Kal disagreed. "Jor-El's right at the limit of our ability to cope. Pretty damn soon he's going to overwrite us and then you'll be dealing with an alien overlord in our body, not us."

Lex's heart lurched at the thought of it. He stood and caught Kal's arm, keeping him from saying anything else. When Kal looked into Lex's eyes the anger faded and a sort of sorrow took its place. They really believed that they were about to be overwritten and replaced.

Lian clutched Jai's hand, her face pale behind her mask as she stepped forward. Both Jai and Iris looked at Kal with enough determination in their faces that he looked confused. Myrina put her hand on Kal's other shoulder, making him stare first at her hand and then into her face. Cerdian stepped forward next, lightly punching Kal in the stomach while grinning up at him. All Milagro did was toss her hair but her body language dared him to disagree with them.

"You're not in this alone," Lex told Kal. "Not anymore. We have things that can help, Kal. All you have to do is let us try. Aqualad made a difference with his spells. Maybe he can craft a shield that protects you from Jor-El's transmissions. I'm sure that we can work with the Green Lanterns to find out exactly what the frequency is. There's magic, prayer, technology. Don't give up on yourself. Just let us help."

Kal tipped his head back as his shoulders slumped a tiny bit. When he looked at them again all Lex could see was pure worry.

"Look, that sounds wonderful but the fact is that if any of you get close while we're being tortured you're going to be crushed," Kal said.

"We were right here while you were tortured," Lex snapped. "None of us got so much as a bruise, Kal. Quit treating us like we're made of tissue!"

Kal bristled at Lex's frustration. Lex bristled right back at him. After a moment Lian chuckled and waved at everyone else.

"Out," Lian ordered. "Go on, leave. Let those two argue it out between themselves. Cerdian, I need you to work on spells to guard Kal and Clark's minds. Milagro, get in touch with the other Lanterns and see if they have any clue how Kryptonian technology works. The more we know the better chance we have of stopping Jor-El before irreparable damage is done. Myrina, call Diana and see if she has any prayers might protect them. Any little bit helps, after all."

Lex huffed at her for using everyone's real names but she ignored it utterly. Kal stared at her as if he couldn't quite figure out what she was doing, which after everything he'd been through both with his isolation before Jor-El attacked him and afterwards made a certain amount of sense. None of the others appeared to be upset at all by having their identities revealed so Lex supposed he was being a bit oversensitive about it.

"Ah, shouldn't someone stay?" Myrina asked.

She stumbled towards the door as Lian pushed at her, spluttering the whole way about chaperones and monitoring and inappropriate behavior. Every word she said made Lex's cheeks blush brighter red while Kal stared at her and the others. Once they were alone in the holding cell they'd created for Kal, Lian looked back in and grinned at them.

"Be good, you two," Lian said and winked. "I'll make sure that no one monitors you two. No fighting! You know Damian will be able to hack the monitors no matter what I do."

"Just go away," Lex complained.

Lian laughed and shut the door, leaving the two of them alone. While Lex scrubbed his scalp with one gauntleted hand (and privately blessed his ability to heal rapidly because his scalp felt somewhat abraded afterwards), Kal stared at the door with his jaw dropped open. He turned back to Lex and pointed at the door in disbelief.

"Did they listen to a word I said?" Kal demanded.

"Oh, I'm sure they listened," Lex sighed. "They just do what they think is right until Lian and I run roughshod over them. This is a very new team, Kal. We don't cooperate terribly well yet. I am working on that, of course."

Kal snorted something that might have been a laugh strangled before it could be born. "I really could kill one of you."

"So could any of the villains that we fight," Lex said. "I've been Robin for several years, Kal. I've come close to death multiple times. All of us have. It's part of who and what we are. You're not going to scare us away by talking about the danger of being too close. That's part of why we set this room up, so that you'd have a safe place to be when the nightly torture happens."

"Walls and floor are way too thin," Kal commented while peering at them. "You need at least another six inches, preferably of lead. Probably with a backing of kryptonite powder for when I do bash through it."

"It's spelled," Lex said. He pointed to the floor where Kal had kicked a hole during the misunderstanding over the ring. "The room heals."

The hole was already closed and the dent was slowly filling back in. Kal knelt down and ran his fingers over the dent. It responded by springing back into shape abruptly. That got a whistle of surprise from Kal who nodded slowly as he stood back up.

"Heals faster when we're interacting with it," Kal mused. "Cool."

"Exactly," Lex said. "We have put some serious thought into this, Kal. We're not rank amateurs. We have some of the strongest and smartest heroes in the world backing us up. We truly can help you."

"I… we've spent our whole lives being afraid of hurting people, Lex," Kal admitted. "Clark's spent literally every waking moment since his strength developed worrying about crushing people. We're really freaking strong."

"Kal, I've danced with you," Lex said gently. He caught Kal's arm, letting his fingers drift down until they were holding hands. "You certainly are incredibly strong but you can control it."

Kal's expression slid away and suddenly it was Clark looking at Lex. The difference was startling. Clark seemed much younger than Kal, much more innocent and shy. He bit his lip. Lex was surprised that Clark's hand shook inside of Lex's palm. To Lex's surprise Clark leaned forward and very hesitantly brushed his lips over Lex's. The kiss stayed sweet and shy for a few seconds and then shifted much sexier as Kal regained control of their body.

"He is so stuck on you," Kal chuckled. "Of course we're both stuck on you but Clark's got it bad."

"It's quite mutual," Lex admitted and wasn't at all ashamed that his voice came out shaky.

"That why you want to help?" Kal asked as if he expected the answer to be yes, that Lex was yet another person who had an agenda for Kal's life.

"I don't want to use you, Kal," Lex said. He let his free hand rest on Kal's cheek. "Ever since we became aware of you we wanted to save you from following the wrong path but it hasn't been about that since the night we danced together. My reasons for wanting to save you are… personal."

That earned Lex a chuckle and a snort, as well as Kal's hand curling around his hip. The second kiss was a strange mixture of Kal's assertiveness and Clark's sweetness. Lex thought that once they managed to save Kal/Clark from Jor-El and their personality had stabilized this might be what they were like as one person. They separated once more and Lex let his forehead rest against Kal's, even though Kal had to bend his neck for that to happen.

"Short," Lex complained.

"Eh, I grew up fast," Kal chuckled. "You're still growing. I can see it in your bones. You'll be taller eventually."

"I'm still short," Lex complained even though he was smiling now. "Stay?"

"It's really not safe," Clark whispered. His voice changed to Kal's. "Not sure we can keep our hands off of you."

"That's a risk I'm prepared to take," Lex said. "Please stay?"

Kal swallowed hard. He pulled back enough that he could look into Lex's eyes for a long moment. Lex didn't say a word. All he could do was hope that his emotions showed on his face because he really couldn't stand the thought of Kal/Clark leaving when they were getting close to figuring out how to save him. After a moment Kal laughed and shook his head in dismay.

"I think you're all nuts," Kal said with a wry smile, "but okay. I'll stay. Just be ready for when I'm gone. The last thing I want is for you guys to be killed when 'Emperor Kal' moves to take over the world."

+++++

"Okay, that's just creepy," Guy said as he peered at the monitors.

"Quite," Jade agreed. "I didn't think that there was anything left of the Kryptonians."

"Unfortunately, there's quite a lot of their technology left on Earth," Bruce growled and didn't allow himself to show his amusement at their automatic response of straightening up and trying to look more serious.

Tim was with them as Batman, watching from behind Bruce with his arms crossed over his chest. Bruce had insisted on wearing one of the dominos simply because he wasn't comfortable showing up to the Watchtower without some sort of mask. It was a bit silly but Bruce hadn't worked directly with Guy or Jade and Hal wasn't available as he was off planet currently.

Most of the Justice League was there, though only the Lanterns mattered currently. Well, them plus Blue Beetle but that was because he flatly refused to stay away from the computers no matter how Bruce glared at him.

"This data is real time," Blue Beetle mused while checking everything.

"We've set up continuous monitoring of the system to attempt to crack it," Tim said in a very good Batman growl that had Blue Beetle fidgeting and the others backing off, other than Diana. She just looked amused at the growl. "So far we've amassed a great deal of data but the time limit is coming up soon."

They'd already discussed how little time there was before Kal was rewritten into someone else entirely. Two days was nowhere near enough time to solve this problem by themselves, which was the only reason that Bruce had agreed to take it to the League. Hopefully with the full resources of the League they'd be able to find some way to either shield Kal for longer or to break the programming code so that they could stop Jor-El's nightly torture session.

"What's it doing?" Guy asked.

"Move," Bruce snapped at them at the same time as Tim.

They dove out of the way as the computers recorded an unscheduled torture session. Within two seconds the entire League was helping to record the data, analyze it and shout solutions back and forth across the room.

"Here!" Blue Beetle said at the same time that Jade tapped the screen on a particular bit of what appeared to be an interference pattern.

They did something that involved linking the scarab into Jade's powers along with the Watchtower's computers. Within moments they had Kryptonian text scrolling over the screens, just before the readings dropped back to normal. Bruce watched the screens while Tim snapped for someone to contact the Titans to find out what had just happened.

"You broke the code," Bruce murmured.

"Well, translated it anyway," Blue Beetle said.

"That should help a lot," Jade agreed. "We sort of need someone who can read Kryptonian, though."

The next three hours were filled with converting the data gathered so far into legible (Kryptonian) text, contacting Oa for one of the older Lanterns to come and translate, and then working out the patterns of coding as they waited. Bruce frowned once the Lantern for sector 3201 arrived. When the Lantern arrived it was so non-humanoid that Bruce wasn't exactly sure where its head was. When it spoke, Jade and Guy both obviously understood what it said but to Bruce and the rest of the League it was incomprehensible.

"He should be able to give us a good translation in a couple of hours," Jade said after a conversation that included whistles, squeaks, thumps and waving of what might be limbs or possibly eye stalks.

Bruce nodded and waited. No one seemed terribly happy about his determination to wait and watch. He honestly didn't care. The alien Lantern worked steadily through the information they'd managed to gather, translating it with Guy and Jade's assistance into something that Bruce and Tim could use. Tim helped set up an automatic translation program with the Blue Beetle's assistance, the two of them muttering over it with their heads together over the console.

Throughout it all Bruce watched and waited, nodding occasionally as the pattern became clear. He might not be able to reprogram the Kryptonian computer but as it's data was translated into a language that Bruce understood he could see the pattern that he'd suspected all along.

It had a virus.

The base code was, from all appearances, logical, even noble, in purpose. Jor-El had somehow downloaded a copy of his personality into the computer so that he could guide his son despite dying with his home solar system. Unfortunately, somehow foreign coding had been introduced into the system and it was suppressing Jor-El's true personality and intentions as it warped him into a threat that Bruce had to agree warranted the Justice League's full attention.

By evening (Gotham time) they had a very clear idea of what was wrong and what they could do about it. Bruce and Tim both agreed that it wouldn't be easy but with everyone's assistance it should be possible to save Kal and the Earth. It might even be possible to save Jor-El, allowing Kal to have one link back to his lost family and home world.

Once the full data had been gathered, the Titans were summoned to the Watchtower along with Kal. Diana called in Donna and Cassie while Roy called both Oliver and Conner. They brought Mia as well. He wasn't at all surprised to find that virtually every single speedster was there when he turned around. None of them had ever been able to mind their own business.

"So uh, what've we got?" Kal asked. 

He looked profoundly nervous about standing the middle of the assembled heroes but he was clearly doing his best to hide it. Lex stood at his side in his Robin uniform, doing such a good job being grim and determined that you would have thought that he was wearing Tim's Batman suit instead.

"Jor-El has a virus," Tim explained with a good bit more confidence than Bruce would have expected out of him at that point. "With the help of several Green Lanterns we've managed to break the coding and figure out what's part of his personality and what's not. We should be able to remove the virus and free you from his demands."

"So, the virus is what's making him want to take over the world?" Kal asked while blinking at first Tim, then Jade and the Blue Beetle.

"You got it," the Blue Beetle said. "It looks like he was a pretty decent guy from the coding but the virus is overwriting portions of his personality, making him want things that from the base code he wouldn't. If we remove it he should be fine and you won't be threatened with being erased and controlled anymore."

"The key point is that we have to do this at one of his central locations," Bruce said as everyone started whispering amongst themselves. He restrained the urge to smile as they all shut up to listen to him even after all these years. "One of your friends located a cave that we believe to be his central processing unit. We've already gathered the equipment we need. Tonight we'll be there for your nightly torture and we'll crack the system and debug him."

"If that doesn't work?" Kal asked which said good things about his common sense and ability to plan ahead.

"Then we destroy him," Bruce said. Diana nodded agreement.

"And if that doesn't work?" Kal asked entirely too grimly.

"Then we get you the fuck out of here," Guy declared. "Trust me, the Lanterns'll make sure you don't go evil, kid."

Kal stared at them all as if he had no idea whatsoever to make of the support. Given that he'd spent his entire life hiding that did make sense. Lex put on hand on Kal's arm, guiding him out of the conference room with a nod and a flick of his fingers that meant that he wanted to give Kal a chance to absorb what they'd said without people around. Bruce nodded, as did Tim. Once they were gone Tim turned to the Titans and smiled his 'this is doable' smile.

"Let's get you up to speed on what you need to do," Tim said. "Everyone's going to be a part of this."

+++++

"Come on, let's take a walk," Lex told Kal. "I think you need a break."

"They…" Kal spluttered and waved one hand back at the conference room as if his brain was still back in there and he wasn't sure that he wanted it back. "They really think they can fix this?"

"That was the point of all of this," Lex said.

He deliberately guided Kal through the hallways towards the observation lounge that would let them look down at the Earth below them. Lex didn't have the entire station memorized but this room he knew how to find from practically everywhere in the station. Kal kept spluttering until they walked into the lounge to find the sun rising over the edge of the planet in a beautiful blaze of light that made Lex's breath catch.

"Whoa," Kal whispered.

"Mmm-hmm, my favorite room here," Lex replied.

They automatically gravitated to the window so that they could stare at the sun rising and the world turning below them. Kal's proud and defiant carriage seemed to melt into Clark's more meek personality after a moment. He turned to look at Lex, frowning in a way that shouted Clark.

"I never expected that anyone would help me," Clark admitted and yes, it definitely was Clark at the moment. "I mean, I was a meteor freak. No one helps them. They can't be helped. They just go crazy and hurt people and then get locked away."

"They're no more irredeemable than you are, Clark," Lex huffed. "I am one, remember."

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that we're freaks," Kal replied with a wry smile that was all Clark. "This is blowing our mind. First we were meteor freaks, or Clark was anyway. I was just that voice inside of him that tried to urge him to live life a little. Then we find out that we're aliens and it's even worse because we supposedly have to take over the world. We figured we were fucked, you know? Why ask anyone for help? No one would help a freak or a monster. It was… I don't know, inevitable or something. We really only fought because neither of us wanted to be overwritten."

Lex allowed himself to reach out and touch Kal's shoulder, squeezing it firmly since Kal seemed more aware of firm touches than truly gentle ones. He smiled back, though it was a weak smile that barely qualified for the term. That wouldn't do. This time Lex moved in and hugged Kal, allowing himself a quiet moan as Kal and Clark hugged him back.

"You're not a freak," Lex murmured into Kal's ear. "You're not a monster, either. You're a person who's done his best to live a good life despite everything that's happened to you."

"And who's broken a hell of a lot of laws, Lex," Kal sighed. "You really should just arrest me."

"What prison is ever going to hold you?" Lex asked reasonably. "The only reason you did it was because you were convinced that you were about to die. Don't deny it. I know it's true."

Kal snorted. He nodded that Lex was right, pulling him back in for another hug. They held each other for a long while. Rather than focus on all the things he could be doing, should be doing, Lex let himself enjoy the feel of Kal's body pressed against his own. It would be much better without the armor of his Robin uniform but even with that it felt wonderful.

"Destiny can be changed, Kal," Lex whispered eventually. "I know it. I've done it. My father wanted me to rule the world too. He was shaping me to be someone horrible, a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur that would rival any super villain you've ever heard of. Batman saved me, gave me a home and a whole new destiny. I'll never be a villain because of him. You don't have to be one either. You're not a freak, not a monster, not anything other than a good person who needs help to become one of the world's finest heroes."

"I am so not in Batman or Wonder Woman's territory," Kal laughed with wide eyes that reminded Lex of Clark.

"You will be," Lex declared seriously enough that Kal stilled and stared at him.

He blushed after a moment, pulling Lex closer for a kiss that made Lex wish that he was wearing anything but the Robin uniform. Between the armor and the cup Lex definitely didn't enjoy the kiss as much as he should have. Kal was smiling wryly when they finally parted to breathe. Lex cocked his head at Kal.

"I have to wonder if you like me more than Clark," Kal admitted a little sheepishly. "Especially since I'll probably go away once we can take the ring off."

"You're the same person," Lex said gently because he could see how worried Kal was about it. "Clark and Kal are simply two sides of the same coin. I'm relatively certain from all my research that you'll simply blend together and become one over time. If you don't, then so be it. I care about both of you, Kal with his fierceness and Clark with his sweet nature."

"Fuck, we don't deserve you," Kal laughed a little breathlessly, as though Lex had just sucker punched him.

"I beg your pardon," Lex huffed. "You're not the one who gets to say who I like. I do!"

That made Kal throw his head back and laugh. They shared another kiss that was fierce and tender and still nowhere near enough. Once it was over Lex gestured towards the door. Kal nodded and sighed as they headed back to the main conference room. He did seem a lot calmer about the whole thing so Lex counted this as a good move.

"I wonder if I'll get to meet Mom and Dad properly," Kal mused as they headed up the hallway. "They've always been afraid of me before."

"I'm sure that they'll love you," Lex said. He smiled when Kal wrapped his arm around Lex's shoulders. "You're going to be a hero and free. From what I could see of them, that's all they ever wanted for you."

"Hope so," Kal sighed. "I really hope so."

The End


End file.
